Indiana man faces life in jail for triple homicide

Derrick Cardosi, of Indiana, was found guilty by a jury and was convicted of murder on Wednesday in the 2016 triple homicide at Sumava Resorts

A 28-year-old man was convicted of murder on Wednesday in the 2016 triple homicide at Sumava Resorts in Indiana after he fatally stabbed three people.

Derrick Cardosi was found guilty by a jury after they found he was responsible for the murders of Justin Lee Babbs, 20, Richard Thomas, 23, and Kimberly A. Spears, 39, The Chicago Tribune reported. 

He faces life in prison without the possibility of parole when sentenced, after the jury took just three hours to convict. 

Cardosi and another man, Sebastian Wedding, plotted to rob Thomas, a supposed drug dealer whose residence previously had been robbed of drugs and money.

The investigation began after an 80-year-old woman, who lived at the residence and was unharmed, found Babbs bleeding on the living room couch and went for help. 

The victims' bodies were found stabbed multiple times on August 28, 2016. 

'People kill people they know,' Newton County Prosecutor Jeffrey Drinski said. 

Justin L. Babbs, 20, (one of the victims) was a father of two who was found stabbed to death in a home following a botched robbery on August 28, 2016

'They planned to rob and steal Ricky's money and his drugs and that's exactly what they did.'

Sebastian Wedding, 26, the other man involved in the triple homicide, was sentenced in October 2017 to 55 years in prison after striking an agreement, pleading guilty to two counts of murder. 

Wedding said he was 'sorry for everything that happened,' before learning his punishment.

The bodies of the three victims were found by an 80-year-old woman who was unharmed (the home shown above)

In exchange for the plea, he avoided a possible sentence of life without parole. 

Cardosi was charged with murder, auto theft and assisting a criminal.  

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According to Drinski the number of wounds found on the victims and also the size of the weapons indicate the crime could not be committed by one person alone. 

'One guy couldn't have done that damage,' Drinski said. 'There were two murderers.'

Defense Attorney Joseph Falk argued Cardosi was not involved in the murders and that Wedding acted alone in the killings and theft of Thomas' automobile.

Richard Thomas, 23, (left) was found in the bedroom of the home where the murders occurred and Kimberly Spears, 39, (right) was also found in the bedroom at the home 

'Wedding lived in the house. Wedding slept on that sofa we saw a picture of,' Falk said. 'He had access to the house, access to the victims and access to the knives.'

Falk also argued that the lack of fingerprint evidence linking Cardosi to the scene or the murder weapon was instrumental to his innocence.

Sebastian Wedding, 26, was sentenced in October 2017 to 55 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of murder

He tried to accuse other people as the potential killers, including an elderly woman on oxygen who lived in the house, and a neighbor who owned one of the knives used in the attack. 

He questioned why the woman's room was not searched as part of the investigation.

Rick Babbs, father of one of the victims, said the guilty verdict in his son's slaying is 'something good out of this mess.'

During a hearing in October 2017 Alicia White, the mother of Babbs' daughter and his 'soulmate', took the stand with a photo of his two children.

'Every night she would wake up screaming, not just for her dad, but that they'd come for her next,' White said. 

At the same hearing his father Rick read an emotional letter for Babbs' mother that read, 'Grief lasts forever because love lasts forever.' 

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