Sam Wood, Garner Wood, Deandre Chambers and Robert Pendelton were already charged in the Pierson Hood investigation. Last month, nearly five years to the day of that deadly fire, warrants were issued charging them with the murders of this innocent mother and child.
"This is all part of the Pierson Hood investigation," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said.
The charges come after an intense investigation that took more than four years.
The Pierson Hood Gang, they say, was dangerous and deadly. Leyton says gang members set the fire at the now-shuttered Westwood Manor Apartments so they could flush out rival gang member Gregory Baines and then kill him.
But he wasn't there.
Twenty-four apartments in two buildings were destroyed.
Kokona Vaughn, 25, and her 7-year-old daughter, Zeona Burress, were trapped on the third floor.
"They had nothing to do with any of this business, and they end up dead. It's tragic," said Leyton.
The four men have been charged with two counts of felony murder, arson and conspiracy to commit murder and/or arson. All but one face a gun charge, too.
"A mother and her daughter, young daughter, are wrongly and innocently murdered," Leyton said.
Baines was killed along with Curtis Wade Jr. less than 24 hours later at Flint's Club Xclusive.
All four men were charged in that case.
Leyton says some 40 Pierson Hood Gang members have been convicted. You may recall the charges were announced nearly three years ago.
Next week, the very first murder trial is scheduled to start.
