INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (AP) – Authorities say a Missouri man who was free on bond while awaiting trial in a deadly September 2017 shooting has been charged with killing a key witness in the case.

Twenty-seven-year-old Michael Dumas, of Pleasant Hill, was charged Sunday with first-degree murder, first-degree assault and two counts of armed criminal action in the shooting that killed Sarah Simms and left another person with minor injuries.

The charge was filed hours after Simms was slain in an Independence home. She was a key witness against Dumas in the fatal shooting of Phillip Anderson, whose body was found in a convenience store parking lot. Dumas was charged with second-degree murder in that case and released on bond in November 2017.

His attorney in the 2017 case didn’t immediately return a phone message.