NC authorities charge 3 men in 17-year-old death

SHELBY, N.C. (AP) — Authorities in North Carolina have charged three men with an armed robbery and killing that has been unsolved since 1995.

Cleveland County sheriff’s deputies this week arrested the men on charges of first-degree murder in the death of 49-year-old Charleen Simons, who was killed June 21, 1995, at a tavern in Kings Mountain.

The men are 37-year-old William Earl Huffstetler, of Blacksburg, S.C.; 42-year-old Gator Walter Martin, of Comer, Ga.; and 40-year-old Randy Michael Wagenknect, of Knoxville, Tenn.

Huffstetler and Martin are currently in the Cleveland County jail. Wagenknect was in the process of being extradited from Tennessee. It wasn’t immediately clear if any of the men have lawyers.

Authorities say a fourth person of interest in the case is dead.