CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — Deputies in Catawba County have arrested five people for their alleged involvement in the killing of a couple north of Conover last March.
Officials announced Friday morning that they had charged Jordan Rivera, 24, and Devin Ussery, 26, for the deaths of Mark Wilson and Diedra Ramseur.
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Investigators said the couple were killed inside their Rest Home Drive house and discovered on March 15.
Later on Friday, authorities said they arrested three more people in connection with the crime, two in Fayetteville, one in Statesville.
They said a family member found the victims inside the home after not hearing from them over the weekend.
On Friday, the sheriff described the crime as a home invasion robbery, and that the couple were killed execution-style as they slept in their bed.
Authorities said at the time, someone forced their way into the home and shot the couple and believe four men went inside while the fifth drove the getaway car.
"It was a robbery, and it was a home invasion, and the couple was in the bed and more or less executed," Catawba County Sheriff Coy Reid said.
But Gabriel Propst said investigators shouldn't have arrested his brother, Ussery.
He was at the home when SWAT moved in early Friday morning.
"I know for a fact he's not like that,” Probst said. “He went to college to play ball, and I know he wouldn't do nothing like that."
Family members told Channel 9 the couple had a 10-year-old daughter, but that she was not home when her parents' bodies were discovered.
Family members also said Rivera was Ramseur's cousin.
"Why did it have to go to that extent?" Latara Ramseur, the victim's sister, said. "She would have gave them whatever they wanted if it was a robbery. She would have gave them."
All of the men will appear before a judge as early as Monday.
Investigators told Channel 9 that robbery was the motive behind the killings.