Delbert Belton Murder Update: Fingerprints allegedly link suspects to WWII vet's beating death

(CBS/AP) SPOKANE, Wash. - Investigators have discovered fingerprints linking two teenagers to an 88-year-old World War II veteran who was beaten to death last month, authorities said.

Police said in an affidavit that Demetruis Glenn and Kenan Adams-Kinard, both 16, killed Delbert "Shorty" Belton on Aug. 22 while he sat in his car. Investigators found Glenn's prints on the exterior rear driver's side door and the interior of the rear driver's side passenger door and Adams-Kinard's prints were on the exterior driver's door and the interior of the rear driver's side passenger door, according to the affidavit.

Belton's body was found wedged between the front bucket seats, with his lower body from the neck down folded into the back seat area, according to the affidavit.

Glenn and Adams-Kinard will be arraigned Sept. 12. Both face charges of first-degree murder and two charges of first-degree robbery. They are being tried as adults.

The Associated Press does not generally identify minors accused of a crime but is naming the teens because of the severity of the charges.

CBS affiliate KREM reports detectives are unable to prove when the prints were left on the car. Sources close to the suspects reportedly claim the prints could have been left at any time because the suspects had done drug deals with Belton in the past.

According to court documents, Adams-Kinard claimed in a letter that he called Belton and arranged to buy crack cocaine from him. Spokane police have said there is no evidence that Belton was a drug dealer. The victim's family has called the allegations ridiculous.

Belton was born in Sunnyside, Wash., and raised in Spokane. He survived being shot in the leg in 1945 at Okinawa, one of the fiercest battles of WWII, and went on to spend 33 years working for Kaiser Aluminum, before retiring in 1982.

Complete coverage of the Delbert Belton murder case on Crimesider