PITTSBURGH — A judge has dismissed drug and weapons counts stemming from a 2013 case against two men later charged in an ambush at a cookout last year that killed five adults and an unborn child.

An Allegheny County judge Monday granted a dismissal request from attorneys for Cheron Shelton, 29, and Robert Thomas, 27, along with a third defendant. They were originally charged in connection with heroin and stolen weapons allegedly found in February 2013 in a home in Wilkinsburg, a Pittsburgh suburb, but the charges were dismissed.

Defense attorneys objected when they were refiled in April 2016 as investigators were working to solve the cookout shootings.