Caracas, September 24 (Xinhua-RHC) -- Three Venezuelans on Tuesday were sentenced to 24 years and 26 years in prison for murdering a former Venezuelan beauty queen and her ex-husband.

Monica Spear, 29, a famous actress and Thomas Berry, 39, were brutally killed after being attacked when their car broke down on a highway in central Venezuela in January.

The three men confessed the murder and others were accomplices, said a statement from the attorney general's office.

Jean Carlos Colina, 19, got a 26-year sentence, while Jose Ferreira Herrera, 18, and Nelfrend Jimenez Alvarez, 21, were jailed for 24 years.

Four other men, one woman, and two teenagers still face proceedings in the case.

Spear won Miss Venezuela in 2004 and lived in the United States. When the incident happened, she was vacationing along with Berry and her five-year-old daughter, who took a bullet in her leg but survived the attack.

The incident shocked Venezuela, a crime-ridden nation where the official homicide rate in 2013 rose to 39 per 100,000 citizens.