Man sentenced to life in 1991 execution-style killings of 3

WASHINGTON – Nearly three decades after the execution-style killings of two men and a woman at a Washington park, a 47-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison.

The Washington Post reports Benito Valdez was sentenced to 94 years to life in prison on Monday after a jury convicted him in the 1991 deaths of 29-year-old Curtis Pixley, 26-year-old Keith Simmons and 23-year-old Samantha Gillard.

The killings had remained unsolved until four witnesses emerged in 2016, identifying Valdez as the killer. Prosecutors say Valdez was a drug dealer who controlled Langdon Park in northeast Washington. A witness testified that Valdez killed the three when Pixley didn’t hand back a $20 rock of crack cocaine during a drug buy. Authorities say he lined up the victims and shot them multiple times.