A Gary man is charged in connection with a double homicide that left two men dead at a Hammond apartment, including his children’s mother’s new boyfriend.

Anthoney “Mainski” Smothers, 29, is charged with two counts of murder, three counts of burglary, and one count of domestic battery.

His case was unsealed Wednesday. He is in custody, held without bail. A court hearing is scheduled June 12.

The victims — Gary Shanklin, 23, of East Chicago, and Montelle “Monty” Lang, 29, of Chicago — were found shot to death in different parts of a stairwell. Hammond Police were called around 3:30 a.m. May 18 to the 500 block of Michigan Street.

Two other men with Smothers are listed by police as potential shooters in court documents, but the Post-Tribune is not identifying them until their cases are unsealed.

The woman alleged Smothers was heavily drunk and arguing elsewhere with her when she heard gunshots.

Police learned Smothers was on the phone with the woman when Lang had choked her a week earlier in front of at least one of their kids.

The night of the murders, Shanklin was friends with Lang — they were resting on the way home from a party.

That night, Smothers called the woman, appearing drunk, saying he would come over. He showed up with the two other men.

When she didn’t let them in, they took off a screen and they climbed through a living room window. Lang and Shanklin started arguing with them.

The woman told the victims to go out her front door while she talked with Smothers.

Smothers followed the woman outside her unit as they argued by the building’s east side.

The woman heard shots. The two men with him, then Smothers fled.“He’s dead,” one of the two men said while leaving.

Her three children were in the apartment.

Investigators tagged a silver Chevrolet SUV in the parking lot right before the shooting.

They traced it to one suspect’s mother.

The man said the three were drinking at a Burnham, Illinois, bar, the Brown Jug, that evening.

They went to the ex-girlfriend’s apartment. The man claimed he wasn’t driving, didn’t know what was going to happen and was outside when the shooting happened.

Investigators doubted his story.

The night of the murders, Smothers pulled a gun and pointed it at the woman. The two men with Smothers stopped Shanklin and Lang from leaving.

Smothers handed the gun to one man so he could freely attack the woman. She led Smothers outside the apartment trying to “defuse” the confrontation.

Anyone with information can call Hammond police Detectives Jason Schafbuch and James Onohan at 219-853-6490.

mcolias@post-trib.com