SEATTLE (AP) — King County prosecutors have charged a Lakewood, Wash.., man with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of three men who vanished after leaving their jobs at a Seattle florist last December.
Their bodies were found March 10 at a plant nursery near suburban Kent.
Prosecutor’s spokesman Dan Donohoe said Thursday that 36-year-old Alberto Avila-Cardenas is held on $10 million bail and is scheduled for arraignment May 26.
The New Tribune says the man has been in federal custody for investigation of weapons counts since February.
He is accused in the deaths of Jesus Bejar-Avila of Lakewood, Yazmani Quezada-Ortiz of Tacoma and Cristian Alberto Rangel of University Place.
King County sheriff’s Sgt. John Urquhart says Lakewood police found a 9mm semiautomatic handgun hidden in Avila-Cardenas’ garage. The gun has been linked to one of the victims through DNA.
