2 Charged In Upstate New York Double Homicide

SODUS, N.Y. (AP) — The ex-girlfriend of a man killed in a double homicide and her husband, a former police chief, were both charged in connection with the October slayings in upstate New York, authorities announced Monday.

Charlene Childers, 25, of Sunray, Texas, was charged with conspiracy and criminal possession of a weapon, and Timothy Dean, 32, was charged with murder, conspiracy and criminal possession of a weapon, the Wayne County Sheriff's Office said.

"It's our belief Dean pulled the trigger," said Wayne County Sheriff Barry Virts.

Joshua Niles was killed outside the home he shared with his girlfriend, Amber Washburn, on Oct. 22 in Sodus, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Rochester. A neighbor told local news outlets that he saw someone shoot Niles and then shoot Washburn as she sat in her parked car. The couple's 4-year-old son, who was in the car with his mother, wasn't injured.

Childers was arraigned Monday and is being held on $100,000 cash bail. She is also wanted in Texas for allegedly injuring a child. Dean, a former police chief in Sunray, is currently jailed in Texas on an unrelated case and is in the process of being extradited to New York. Information on their lawyers wasn't immediately available.

Friends and relatives said Niles and Washburn were also raising a 7-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter whom Niles had with Childers, who spoke to a Rochester television station during a vigil held for the victims.

"Justice needs to be served," she told WHEC, adding that her children will have to "grow up without a dad, and that's nothing a kid should ever have to do."

Dean was head of the three-member Sunray police force from October 2016 to June 2018, resigning about a month after his arrest on a charge of injury to a child, a town official said.