Woman Charged With Killing Ex-Boyfriend And His Girlfriend

SODUS, N.Y. (AP) — A husband and wife from Texas were arraigned Wednesday on murder charges in the slayings of the wife's ex-boyfriend and a woman in upstate New York.

Charlene Childers, 26, was arraigned in Wayne County Court in New York on second-degree murder charges. She has been held in the county jail since originally being charged with conspiracy and criminal possession of a weapon in last month's fatal shootings of Amber Washburn and Joshua Niles, Childers' ex-boyfriend.

Childers' husband, former Sunray, Texas, police chief Timothy Dean, was arraigned later Wednesday in the same court on first- and second-degree murder, conspiracy and criminal possession of a weapon.

Childers and Dean both pleaded not guilty to the murder charges during separate court proceedings.

Messages left with Childers' and Dean's lawyers were not returned.

Police said Washburn and Niles were shot Oct. 22 outside the home they shared in Sodus, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of Rochester. A neighbor told police that he saw Niles get shot while standing in his driveway. He then witnessed Washburn get shot while sitting in her car. The couple's 4-year-old son was in the car at the time but wasn't injured.

Friends and relatives say Niles had recently won custody of the two children he had with Childers, who was arrested in Wayne County a week after the slayings. Authorities have said they don't believe Childers was in Sodus when the killings occurred.

Dean, who resigned as Sunray police chief earlier this year after being charged in an unrelated case, was extradited to New York from Moore County, Texas, last week. Bron Bohlar, a 34-year-old former Sunray police officer, was brought from Texas to Wayne County a few days earlier and arraigned on conspiracy charges.

Childers and Dean, 32, were being held without bail in separate local jails, while Bohlar was being held in a third jail.

Police have said they believe Dean pulled the trigger. Bohlar helped Dean rent vehicles he used during his trip from Texas to Sodus to commit the killings, with Childers helping with the planning, authorities said.

Cindy Morton, billing clerk for the city of Sunray, said Bohlar was hired by the local police department June 25 and was fired Nov. 8, a day after he was arrested at his Texas home on the New York charges. An officer appointed to serve as interim police chief after Dean's resignation has since resigned, leaving the Texas Panhandle city of 1,900 without anyone working for what is usually a three-member force, Morton said.