Three men were charged Thursday with murder in the shooting deaths of a 23-month-old boy and three adults inside what authorities described as a crack house.
Investigators said robbery was the motive behind the Jan. 16 slayings and that those charged with the shootings knew there was money in the second-floor apartment because it was a drug house.
Lenzo Aaron III, 23, of Indianapolis; James Parks, 23, of Gary; and Antonio D. Jones, 28, of Merrillville were each charged with four counts of murder in perpetration of a robbery.
If convicted, each faces maximum sentences of up to 260 years in prison. They were being held Thursday by Gary police without bond.
Detective Cpl. Michael Jackson said in a probable cause affidavit that Aaron confessed to being present at the shootings.
Aaron told investigators that Jones told him and Parks that Anthony McClendon Sr., 24, had about $6,000 and asked them to join in the robbery, the affidavit said.
Aaron told police that he watched the bottom-floor door while Jones and Parks went inside the apartment. He heard about eight shots, and when he entered the apartment, he saw a baby and a woman on the coach.
He heard Jones and Parks in another room and heard five more shots. He then heard Parks say he was out of bullets. Aaron said Parks took the gun he was carrying and went back in the other room and that he heard more shots, the affidavit said.
The shootings were discovered about 12:15 a.m. on Jan. 17 when Ronyale Hearne, the mother of 23-month-old Anthony McClendon Jr., returned from a shopping trip to pick up the child from his father.
Hearne found Laurice Jones, 47, dead and the boy, who had been shot twice in the chest, sitting in her lap.
She then found the boy’s father dead on a bedroom floor and Jimmy Jones, 45, dead in a bathroom, police said. The toddler, who was alive when police arrived, was flown to a Chicago hospital but died that day.
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Compiled from RedEye news services.
