Three arrested in slayings of two teens in Lake County

CROWN POINT, Ind.  — A woman and two men each face two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of two teenagers at a home they shared in northwestern Indiana, authorities said.

Dawn M. Carden, 42; Alvino S. Amaya, 36; and Elijah D. Robinson, 19, all of Gary, were charged in the slayings of 17-year-old Maxwell Kroll and 18-year-old Elijah Robinson last Oct. 16 near Griffith, Lake County Sheriff Oscar Martinez said Thursday.

It wasn’t clear if the victim Elijah Robinson and the suspect Elijah D. Robinson are related.

The victims were believed to have been fatally shot in retaliation for stealing a handgun, police said.

Robinson was arrested Thursday night. Carden and Amaya, both of Gary, were arrested Dec. 18 and ordered detained pending trial in U.S. District Court in Hammond on federal firearms charges.

Carden faces additional charges of dealing in a narcotic drug and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

Court record include witness statements of the events leading up the the shooting. A witness said the night before his death, she and the victim Elijah Robinson were talking on the FaceTime video app when both fell asleep. The witness said she woke up to an older man, identified as Amaya, heard on FaceTime yelling and asking, “Where’s the gun?” Robinson responded he did not have the gun and started to cry, she told police.

The two teens later were found dead with gunshot wounds.