TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Three men now face decades or even life in prison after they were convicted this afternoon in a connected case involving two deadly home invasions in Western New York.
Three people were killed and two young girls were shot and wounded at those crime scenes in Tonawanda and Buffalo back in 2019.
Prosecutors provided details on Wednesday afternoon just hours after guilty verdicts on murder and attempted murder counts.
In 2019 this haunting message from a murder victim's relative as Joselyn Feeney, niece of Danielle Cretacci, told 2 On Your Side, "We know there's a monster or monsters on the street. It's not only the town of Tonawanda."
Indeed, there were two middle-of-the-night home invasions back then where now-convicted killers were seeking cash from their chosen victims who had received insurance settlements.
The first occurred on Aug. 27 at a home on Ebling Avenue in the Town of Tonawanda as two men broke into the home and demanded money from 31-year-old Danielle Cretacci, who knew one of the men through Facebook.
Acting Erie County District Attorney Michael J. Keane told reporters: "They threatened her. They told her that they demanded the money, and she begged for her and her daughter's lives, but they didn't listen."
Keane says Cretacci was shot execution style in front of her two daughters, ages 8 and 11 at the time. They were also then shot multiple times as they huddled under a blanket.
"While the men were fleeing, these two little girls were playing dead, and when they eventually realized that they were gone for sure, they ran out and went to get help," Keane said.
Then a month later in a home at 93 Merimac St. near Main Street in Buffalo, 21-year-old Bethany Malloy and 26-year-old Shaquiel St. John were also shot. They were also executed after demands for Malloy's insurance settlement money.
"They're connected by one man who is the perpetrator in both cases and the gunman in both cases," Keane said.
Prosecutors say that was 41-year-old Ernest B. Green Jr. of Tonawanda and his associates, 40-year-old Daniel Rodriquez of North Tonawanda for the Ebeling scene, and then they say Green was with 27-year-old Wayne Robbins of Tonawanda in the Merrimac scene.
All are now guilty of murder with attempted murder charges, as well against Green and Rodriquez for the shootings of the two girls. They were Cretacci's daughters, who somehow recovered.
"These two little girls showed incredible bravery coming in here," Keane said. "They're still little girls, and they were able to come in and tell this jury what happened to them that horrible night."
Keane added that the families were very pleased by the jury verdict, even as some had originally complained to the media back in 2019 that police were moving too slow on the investigations.
"This hopefully gives them some small sense of justice and some peace as they try to move forward with their lives," Keane said.
Sentencing is set for May 3 for the now convicted murderers.