Prime Crime: Solved Murders - Silenced by Violence: The Kentucky Triple Murders

Episode Date: April 25, 2026

In May 2016, a single gunshot ignited a three-week nightmare that left three people dead within a one-mile radius in Kentucky. The initial killing of a 40-year-old man was merely the catalyst for a much darker crime: the murder of two teenage brothers who witnessed the first act of violence. Get the full story on this episode of “Prime Crime with Jesse Weber.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He was at a friend's house walking home. There was a call for shots fired. And when beat officers arrived on scene, they located Mr. Jones in the middle of the street. You're just minding your own business. And suddenly your life in shortly thereafter for no reason whatsoever. This quiet Kentucky neighborhood turns violent in an instant. And it launches an investigation that would expose something far worse. There's cool people to see in the alley.

Oh my God. Somebody said them on fire. It looks like two kids really. I have talked to people that have committed some heinous crimes. Truly, honestly, one of the most evil people I've ever seen. A lot of mayhem ensued in that case. Not often is it a situation where there's a body in the middle of a street and there's nothing else around it. There's no crowd.

There's no people. There's no witnesses. There's nothing really to draw a conclusion of what actually occurred. It's around midnight when gunshots ring out in this west side neighborhood and 40-year-old Christopher Jones is gunned down while he was just walking home from a friend's house. One of the problems with Christopher Jones's case in particular, Christopher Jones did not actually die on that street. He died on the surgical table. The actual shooting incident could have taken place a yard, two yards, three yards away from where his run. resting place was when the ambulance crew got out there. So when you go back to do crime scene

reconstruction, your orientation is completely blown at that point in time. There wasn't really a good opportunity to follow a whole lot of leads. We did a background on him and he's just a guy. You know, he doesn't really have an extensive criminal background. Your immediate thoughts go to, what did this guy do? Who does he know? Who wants to hurt him? It just came up dry. Detectives fan out, processing the scene, checking nearby homes for surveillance footage, but there is one camera that captures something that no one else saw, and it sets this whole case in motion. We also obviously looked for any kind of ring cameras or any kind of video that would help kind of get put together the puzzle pieces. We did happen to have one camera that showed us one angle of a car speeding away, but nothing major.

Beyond that, they don't have a license plate. They can't see who's in the car. At that point, the only thing you could really do is good old-fashioned police work, which is boots on the ground, talking to people, trying to figure out what relationships are going on. When you have someone that is walking down the street in, you know, in a neighborhood area, and they are the single person that is killed, you have to begin to think as an investigator that that individual was in fact targeted. We started digging. Digging into Mr. Jones's life.

Does he have enemies? Is he in the drug game? Is he connected to people that we know are in the crime element? And that came up empty. Christopher Jones, the reporting of when he was murdered. What didn't gather a huge amount of news. Louisville has become, is a town with more than 100, sometimes close to 200 murders a year.

It probably was 15 seconds of the news. It was a tragedy and a 40-year-old man with a family. had been shot. There was no alarm bells that it was something bigger. Days turn into weeks without an ounce of progress in this case. And police believe they're dealing with an isolated homicide, but later on they discovered they are very wrong, and things get a lot more complicated. Right or Hoover, where's your margin?

Hello, there's two people in the alley. Oh, my God. We're in between 40th Street and up. 39. These people are not breathing at all. Is that correct? No, 30s. Okay.

It looked like they're no older. It's 17, 18. It was within just a couple of weeks of the murder of Christopher Jones where an additional crime scene was found. And this one was quite brutal. No. No. No.

No. Yeah, I have, hello. Yes. I'm in an alley between 40th and Riverport. It's two dead bodies laden. They look like they are burned up. The inside are on the outside. It looks like somebody sat them on fire.

It looks like two kids, really. Okay, we're going to get the first availability unit started that way, ma'am. Just stay away from them, okay? I was on call that day, and I remember it vividly. I got the phone call, and I arrived on scene. I walked the path to the rear of the house, the alley. I did a complete once over the whole entire house, the abandoned house around the outside,

to see did they drive up to the back and dump them that way? Did they carry them through the beside the home and drop them off in the back? We see horrible things all the time. What man can do to man, it really takes you back sometimes. When I saw these two boys laying on the grass, partially covered by a sheet and burnt, and you sit there and you think, who could do this?

Who could do this to anybody? People that apply fire to the deceased often believe that they are eradicating evidence. But the one thing that fire will not destroy, it's not going to disguise any kind of wound tracks. It's important to try to understand the level of violence that we're talking about here. You learn a lot about the perpetrator,

how little value they put on human life. They're treated as if they're, if they're rubbish. When you start looking at the bodies and you start to see the destruction that the fire caused and you start to see the stab wounds. Ultimately, one boy I think was stabbed

18 times and the other boy was stabbed in the 20s. They didn't have wallets, they didn't have identification, and it's very difficult to identify juveniles. We ended up taking the kids to the ME's office and once we got them there, we attempted again to get fingerprints

and we couldn't. And this really puts us in a doctor. Dilemma. Nobody knew at the time that it was these two boys because they had not been reported missing. In fact, police early on put out sketches of the boys to see if anybody knew who it was. The faster we can get these renderings out, the faster we can get information back. Within a few hours, we got the renderings. And my first thought is let's try and get this out to the public as fast as we possibly can. It wasn't until the following morning. that things really got interesting. We got a phone call in the morning

from assistant principal at a school that said, I think these two boys are Larry and Maurice. They're students that go to school here. And so we got those two names. We got the address of where their mother lived. And I said, okay, let's go to the mother's house. The two boys that they're saying could be,

could be at the house. We don't know. As we pull up, you can see her in the front yard sitting down and her first words are what they do this time. Where are they at? As a human being, the last thing you want to show any parent is a picture of their deceased child. I just said I gotta do it. I chose to show the mom a picture and it just emotions just ran through the roof. She jumped up, started screaming, that's him, that's him, that's him, where's my baby, where's my baby? and I had to tell her.

A mother claims the two teens found dead behind a house were her sons. The bodies of the boys found burned Sunday afternoon on River Park Drive. The bodies are officially identified as brothers, 16-year-old Maurice Gordon and 14-year-old Larry Ordway. This was not a typical murder in Louisville or anywhere. This was two teenagers, two children, basically. Larry and Maurice were both still in middle school at the time, despite their age. They were very close. I know that they didn't have a great family life, didn't have a great home life.

So they were often on their own. Police know they have got to figure out who did this to these two teenage boys. And so their first questions are, who are their friends? Who are they hanging out with? Who are their associates? So they're talking to family. They're talking to friends. They're trying to figure out who is within their circle.

Mama's going to know who they're involved with. She's going to try to fill in the blanks for them to try to understand what is this narrative that led them to this location. And not only her, but anybody else that she has personal knowledge of, that they had a son. associated themselves with. That leads us to the first time we heard the name, Rambo. And we heard that name, it just rang out. And we're like, who is this? She says, I know it was him, I know it was him.

They got in the car with him. Rambo, whose name is Bryce Rhodes. Bryce Rhodes and the uncle spent time in jail together. And the mother knew Bryce Rhodes in a relationship-style communication. where they were kind of sort of seeing each other, which adds a whole different dynamic to this situation.

Is she jaded? Is she just thrown his name out? Is it a bad situation that's turned worse? This is the first turn of events that's actually gave in a direction. I stand back and interview the mom and the uncle. They talk about their two best friends, Corey Taylor and Ann Juan Carter.

Carter. One of the big breaks police got was when Maurice and Larry's mother called one of their phones and a teen answered. She said, where are my kids? Ann Juan Carter answered and Jacori was with him. Detective Vance and two other detectives decided to go to where Anne Juan Carter lived. The adult that owns the house lets the detectives in, Detective Vance looks over. and he sees An Juan Carter attempting to shove the phone under the bed and hide it. And there is one other thing that stands out about what Anwan's wearing, a big clue that they're heading in the right direction.

These are the things we're missing from the scene where we initially saw the two boys. No shoes, no phone, no wallet. The mom happened to have a picture of the shoes that they were wearing. Lo and behold, guess whose shoes he's wearing? Morise's. That's all we need. It's going to go to. I'm saying.

It's a good year when you did in sophomore. You're friends with Maurice, right? You're friends with Larry, right? Okay. I'm sorry, I'm distracted. I like you, kiss me. I don't know why. Remind me the old Jordans, dude.

I had to ask, how much these shoes? I was 300. No way! Are you serious? You have several different paths that go down. You have several different paths that go down, but the first thing you want to do is you want to get a feeling of that individual. What do they react to?

Are they reacting to emotional? Are they reacting to religion? Are they reacting to dad voice? Or are they kind of set back and kind of sort of stoic, so to speak, not going to say nothing to anybody, nothing's going to happen? and you've got to spend more time breaking down those walls to trying to sort of create a communication path. How are you wearing marries for four years?

Do you want to talk to us and know what's going on? Just remember me. It doesn't get any easier from here. And it'll bring some of this. I mean, do you know what happened to him? Let us talk to him. They say he was in Victory Park. What is that?

This is like, This is my question. Is it your mom? So did she talk to you Saturday on your phone? When did you get Reese's phone? Reyes' phone that bus. I just bought that. Did you buy them?

I'm going to do it. That is more than me. Interviewing juveniles is always tricky for police. Teenagers have a tendency to lie, make up stories, say things to be cool or because they want to be friends with somebody, or they don't want to upset somebody. but you can't assume they're lying. There are some teenagers who will tell you the truth.

This is just my perspective, okay? And you can jump in anytime. I'm good friends with Reese. I'm good friends with Larry's. We've got in trouble before, and all of a sudden, Luma's got his phone, and I'm like, okay, I'll buy his phone, and I don't ask any questions.

I know it was reset. Everything was my stuff. So how did you know was this? I didn't know. Now, Moubos. Well, we didn't talk to Mn Mou then. Yeah, phone. Now, Anwan Carter's saying, oh, I got this phone from a friend of mine, but then says,

this friend doesn't have a phone? Police obviously know he's lying. They've already confirmed this is Larry and Marese's phone. But Mou, whoever that is, has nothing to do with this case, according to police. Why don't he keeps the phone so he'd have access to a phone? You know what I'm saying? That doesn't make a lot sense. Because he probably did it.

Has anybody talked about who did it, your friends, and groups? Nobody said a single word about it. Nobody. Was Maurice and Larry in some stuff? No. They probably, probably was getting robbed. Because, you know, they'd be posting pensions of family goods and stuff. I've been doing this for her.

Ten years. and that was no robbery. No. Not even in the close. Complicating the investigation for police are pictures on social media of Larry and Maurice. These pictures show the two teenage boys holding up guns and flashing money. But the family saying, you know,

they're just dumb teenage boys putting these posts up. They were trying to look tough and cool on social media. You know, there shouldn't be any phone calls to family members of yours before yesterday. A phone call her phone calls to Breece's mom. Excuse me. Somebody was coming from that.

But that's other was over. Well, for instance, mom said she talked to you. She talked to you Sunday. She recognized your voice and they told her, they said that they were fine, you were to have them call her later. So your mom said that you FaceTime her Saturday night. What number did you face down her from?

That was my cousin Q. Can you say the last time you talked to Maurice or Larry was Friday night? Two or three days ago. Two there is now? Well, that would be more about Saturday. Because your mom thought you went with them. I started to hug car to face them. So they were in the car with you?

Then they were in the car. They were in the car. They were sweet. It was a, whatever. I was in C-Face Rambo. Where they were in Rambo? Did you know for a fact that Larry and Reese were was Rambo? I didn't talk to him at night.

Did you tell us where you were at Saturday? Saturday it was in Parkview. All day? We'd just tell me your day, man. Just simple. So I did was. We got hired all day. Later that night?

I spent the night from my prison house. We learn. Larry Maurice's dads aren't really in the picture. And that Bryce Rhodes is kind of sort of filling a little bit of that other aspect of their lives that's missing. And these boys are becoming enamored by him. Bryce Rhodes, he is essentially a father figure to Larry and Maurice. He had dated their mother, so there was a connection there. He also knew their uncle from a previous jail stint.

They look up to Bryce Rhodes. He's kind of like the local cool guy, you know, in the neighborhood. And not just that, Bryce Rhodes had taken them to, you know, get food, bought them clothes, bought them shoes. Rhodes was sort of a small-time rapper in the community. This is the crowd's Bryce Rhodes, Anwan Quadrides. It's these other teenagers who looked at Bryce as a mentor and really was kind of the leader of this group. Now, Anwan Carter somewhat changes his tune now saying he doesn't even know Rambo. You got a lot of fears.

And one of your fears is probably Rambo, right? You don't feel Rambo? I don't know what he told me in the car. It was a new guy was about 28, 20-old was an older guy. And then he'd be for a little. So you've never been in the car with Rambo, any of his cars. let's say that something really bad happens okay and you aren't a part of it

but you have to be there and you witness it and then a certain person involved in that thinks you might tell on them and something really bad happens to you should we go after the people to hurt you that's what we're doing be honest with me

Help us for your friends. I know for a fact that you are not telling us all the whole truth, okay? I know you know about Rambo. We started off talking to Anwan, and it was exactly what we thought it was going to be. I don't know about this, I don't know about that. And I started throwing some things out there. You could see that he was definitely having conflict about whether to talk to us and tell us or to just stay quiet.

Your sister's cell the phone and you answer the phone car. You did not be able with Rambo, but she said, no, you weren't with him. So tell us about the last information you know about them. I know you know about Rambo. As far as when it comes to Larry and Reese, I think it's important that you see a few things. It's hard for me to look at this.

I want to show you what we have. found Sunday. I want you to look at this. Those words were torture. My mama tends to see this. Think about the last minutes of their life. What they looked through. Because I would imagine that's how on earth. They show in Juan Carter pictures of his two friends and the state that they were found in. And for a 16-year-old to see their friends in this state, I'm sure was disturbing and heart-wrenching, but police needed to do it because they had to get him to realize these are your friends. I'm going to fire at me.

We see her. Take part of she's off. I will tell you this right now. I know for a fact you're not being honest, okay? Because of certain things we just found out. I'm going to tell you right now, Dave, you're going to give yourself the deep is how there is a huge difference between being a suspect and being a witness. Between being somebody that's cooperating, some of it's not.

And then somebody's living and throwing something that's not. At one point, I said, man, we've been talking for a little bit. Let's take a break. And this is where you have the opportunity to look at your suspect and see how they're going to react to the time alone when nobody else is in the room. And you could tell that the, the, the, mental conflict that was going on in Anwan's brain was real.

I got a search one here. We're going to be collecting some pictures. We're going to be taking some swabs and doing some different things, okay? I do not. So Anwan sitting in the room when something unconventional happens. His mom and sister show up at the office, against all normal operations. Most of the time, when you have a subject inside the interview room, the last thing you want to do is bring in family.

It's a gamble. That family could be like, you don't talk. You're not a snitch. You don't say anything. I inferred how important this was and how much trouble Ann Juan is actually in. She went in and talked to Ann Juan. When the sister came out, she looked me dead in the face and said,

he wants to talk to you. You've already told your sister. She came out and told us that you want to talk to us. Now, is that the truth? Okay? I need to hear you say that. This. I want to talk to you guys.

A new detective enters the room, and they're hoping that this different strategy will draw out more information from Ann Juan Carter about the murder of his friends. Sometimes, as a detective, you have to look at the individual your head. talking to and realize that you might not be the right person for the interview. And I looked at Sergeant John Lesher and then I said, you know what? Why don't you go in there and talk to him? He had a very almost reverend style of interrogation. So John went in there and that changed everything.

I need you to tell me the truth. Okay. No matter how bad it is, you promise me? Right there, that's golden. I won't lie to you, you don't lie to me, all right? What do you know about this? About this murder? Well, I know that Saturday night,

I don't know couldn't take Marysson or whatever yet and the charge of a black charge. And then like days before that, he heard Marrice because I put my speaker phone use. He started with some heat, you know, Frizzarmo. It's like talking about him. bed and then we went over at my race he started stealing his money and then he chopped he chopped me he chopped me and my cousin off but my reason didn't stay in the car because they

was hungry and we got in a car with my cousin's brother and then like we went out we had bull of county we spent night there because we didn't want to go back over rambo's next day we went over because my cousin he had some stuff in the ramos trunk he got that stuff, from the guy back in the car, and then I got trapped off that parkeel. And then I don't know how, I don't know how to that, but I wouldn't know with them. He starts giving bits and pieces of the truth,

but still, Detective John Lesher knows more than Anwan Carter realizes. So he tries a different tack. He tells Carter that Rambo, aka Bryce Rhodes, is in the other room. And he is giving more of the story. Man, I'm a man of my word. You're a man of your word.

We shook on it. All right. Please stop. Stop, stop lying to me. Rambo's not the type of guy that's going to look out for you because he's not looking out for you right now. He's throwing you under the bus. From everything I understand, you're in this like just as much as him.

The next time that you see Rambo's wetting. Last time I seen him was on Saturday. This past weekend. Okay. Where'd you see him at? He was at his house. What was he doing that night? At night, he was drinking, smoking, and stuff, and that with Maurice and Larry.

With Maurice and Larry? So Maurice and Larry are with him at his house Saturday night. What time was that? We put up on about 11.30, 12. All three of you all, and then all three of them. Y'all smoking weed over his house? What time do you leave? We left about an hour later.

What did Maurice and Larry and... They stand there removed. Ann Juan Carter alludes to police that there had been a disagreement between Larry and Maurice and Rhodes. You're a cold heart killer that people are going to look at and you'd be like, what the hell's wrong with this kid?

Or you're somebody that got mixed up in some stuff. There's a blank page. I'm not going to write on it. I'm just going to listen to you. Okay? But I'm going to call you on the bullshit that I hear. Let's start over. Okay?

When I was up in Rambo's house, like my court, Corey, and Maurice, they got into a fight. And Maurice, he picked up a big knife. Rainbow took it from Rambo smacked him. It's like me real hard. Like, he tied them up. He tied him up.

He tied him up or something. And then he tied his brother up. He made his brother seen the bathroom. And then he made, he made, um, he made Mariska in his knees. And like, beg for forgiveness. And like he put a tobogging over his head. Put a rag in his mouth. And then he stabbed him and paid.

Rambo did. Okay. At Rambo's house. So you see this happen? Do you see this happen? Holy . You didn't hold that in this whole time? I think Anwan almost disassociates and suppresses any kind of emotional aspect to the situation,

because I don't really think he had time to process it. What room is he in when he stabs him? It's a little. Did he put anything down? He put a, um, he put a, uh, a quilt, you know. Before he did all this. Where's the quill that now? What happens to his brother?

We moved Maurice to the side. We broke his brother and we put the tobacco in his head. He put the tobacco in his head and put the sock in his mouth. I'm like, start stepping in two. He puts him in crates. He left me in Corey at the house to clean it up. He took him all in the way down to 41st, and dumped him in the alley.

He said, I sit there and watch them burn. The details that Anwan Carter describes are absolutely chilling. It's difficult to comprehend. But what's even more stunning is what we still don't know, the why, the why behind the killings of his young friends. Is this because of they stole money or is it something different? I'm talking about why this all happened. This is because it was telling them. All these things.

Okay, what were they telling them? The Rambo shot somebody in, um, by the park. When was that? This was, this one. You got to die? Ann Juan Carter made the statement that Rambo or Bryce Rhodes was really, really upset because he was afraid that Maurice and Larry were going to snitch on him

about killing that guy in the West End. And I was like, the guy in the West End, the guy in the West End, the guy. guy in the West End. Oh my gosh. And as I'm watching this, it clicked. They killed Jones. Up to that point, police had zero idea that anybody connected to these boys or Ann Juan Carter knew anything about Christopher Jones. He was lit light blue sky, light blue Mazze. And he pulled it open. He cut his lights off. And he rode in there slowly. I do it was turned around. He said get the street, and shot him. And he pulled off, my reach pulled off.

Really enough he died, not until he watched the news. Why did he shoot that guy? I don't know. Because he has, he has some money in this head. But he shot the wrong guy, he shot the wrong dude. He kills these two kids, because these two kids know about that? Because he told, he told his mom. The problem is, for investigators though, initially,

it is not necessarily possible. to connect Christopher Jones' death to this other crime scene that is found. Christopher Jones' case seems to be almost a one-off event, not for the second case. But here's the deal, man. He got you wrapped up in something. Not once, but twice. Was Corey with you on the 41st one too? And those two guys?

All right. Most tissue. And all of a sudden, instead of two homicides, we're dealing with three homicides. And one is a direct result of the other. I live in there. Tell me what you know. What I knew, what I heard is to stand. That's what I know.

Come on, man. Dude, just tell me the truth, man. Detectives can't just take one person at their work, right? That's why you see teams working simultaneously. Some are collecting evidence. Others are looking for witnesses. A female called in and said that, when she saw the pictures of the boys on the TV,

she said, I think my boyfriend knows something about this. He brought over his boots. And he said, you gotta hide these boots, they got blood on him. That boyfriend was Jacori Taylor. We go over there, we collect the boots, and lo and behold we find Jacori Taylor. I was there. All I know is just they were stabbed and it was burned.

That's all I know. Dude, just tell me the truth, man. I already know. I want to see if you tell me the truth. And we've been involved with the truth either. Jacori and Ann Juan, they do everything together because they're all kind of sort of in the same situation. They're in that situation without a strong role model in her life

and they're kind of sort of gravitating towards Bryce Rhodes. And they're becoming enamored with his lifestyle and his stories. And it's kind of sort of bringing these boys deeper into his web. If he was mad at him, I don't know why he was mad at. You're not confessing to anything here, man. You're telling me the truth about what you know to be true. And you're still evading the truth. I'm shooting in 41st or whatever.

If you said, I guess you felt like they were going to tell whatever. That's what I'm heard. So I guess their mom found out. Rambo couldn't handle that. You just lost it up to that. I guess you felt like they were snitching. Because they was in a cop. You're not concerned about.

You did. You told him he was going to kill me. Bryce gets them all loaded up. Anwan had stolen a truck earlier that day. So in the one car was Larry, Maurice, and Bryce Rhodes. And Anwan was in the truck, the stolen the truck behind them. And they're driving all over the West End

looking for this guy that only Bryce knows what he looks like. And then we come into Christopher Jones walking across the street. And Bryce Road goes, there he is. And shots ring out. To be honest with you, man and man. Yeah, man and man, man. To be honest with you, he just, he just wanted it like,

so his toughness and show how tough he was. He wanted to show us. wanted to see how we were tough we was. If you hang around a bunch of young people, you want them to do your dirt so they can get caught up with you. Turns out all of them were there when Christopher Jones was shot and killed in a possible case of mistaken identity. Anwan being just all I can think of is like,

holy cow, that just happened. Doesn't think about it, keeps on driving and runs over Christopher Jones with the truck. At the scene of the Christopher Jones, you knew that there was some other turmoil that occurred, not just the gunshots because of the injuries that he had sustained. Chorri said that Bryce fought the boys Larry Maurice were snitching on him. In his words, there's only one way to take care of snitches. We got Bryce Rhodes at a gas station, and it was a tactical takedown where we pulled up behind him, and we took Bryce Rhodes into custody and transported him down to the homicide office. While this is going on,

I was putting together a search warrant for the condominium that Anawan told us the murder actually took place. Detective Holland was one of the investigators that was at the condo and I was on the phone with him and I can remember this to this day. As he's walking up he says oh my God Aaron all I smell is bleach. It is so thick it's making my eyes water. And your initial thought as an investigator whenever you smell chemicals, You're like, up, there goes all of my evidence. Once we made entry into the location, the rug was saturated. Remember, he went to some certain lengths in order to mask his involvement.

I think probably one of the biggest things is the fact that he burned these bodies. And heat impacts DNA deposition. It degrades it or it eradicated. it to a great degree, so you're not necessarily going to find anything on the bodies. So your fallback position at that point in time is what other evidence do you have? The carpet was like a cream color and the furniture was white. So you had to know how much one boy was stabbed 18 times, 19 times, the other boy was stabbed 22, 23, 4 times.

There's blood. You've just got to look. We found traces of blood on a vase on the fake flowers. And we decided, let's step back and let's use the blue star on this room. Detective Holland, to quote him, he said it glowed like a full moon in the sky. While this is going on, I, in turn, am about to interrogate Bryce Rhodes. Well, here's the thing, man. We are looking for two missing kids.

And we don't know. We heard that you might know where they might be or you were seeing with them or talk to them. Any way, shape, or form anything you could help us to find them, we would appreciate it. Who are they? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, man. You're on it. Maurice.

And who else? And Larry. Ah, I know, yeah. Have you seen them lately? Do you know? No, I've seen him. I'm about a week. You can see that on his part, there's a certain level of resistance.

One of the things that investigators look for, you begin to think about people closing down, shutting down, or redirecting. When was the last time that you remember seeing him and where was it? Probably at Circle Pay or ran down Taylor. Like I see them like through the neighborhood and I might see them out playing basketball and stuff like it. What day, though? Probably like, what's today? Today's Tuesday. I don't know, probably like, probably around last Tuesday, to be honest.

Tuesday or Wednesday. Police bring Bryce Rhodes in, and they don't get much from. This is not a long interview. He acknowledges that he knows the boys. You close with these kids at all? They're cool. We play basketball. I'm cool with a lot of people.

Well, let me ask you how tight were you? Did you hang out with him on a regular basis? That was cool. Yeah, we hung out at different times, you know, different times. All right. Go to the park, play basketball, you know, might go out to eat or something. They was cool. Do you know what school they went to or anything like that?

No. You know their family? Yeah, yeah. I know their uncle. I know their mother. I used to date their mother probably like last summer. He used to talk to and stuff. Has anybody said anything about them or anything like that around the neighborhood?

Actually, TJ, he texts my phone today. Their uncle. Yeah. Talk about he's like something about they were dead or something like it. And I'm like, I text, I'm like, are you joking? You know what I'm saying? And you never text me back. Police, it is not their job when you're in an interview room to give the individual information.

Because more information you give them, that's something that they can play around with. And somebody that's really queued in on how to deal with the police and how to take questions, they'll know when to keep their mouth shut. Some people are really good at deception. Has there anything we haven't asked that you think might be wrong with my help? I mean, y'all don't want to ask the questions. Oh, man, we're just trying to find the kids. I mean, I mean, y'all, you know, y'all got the questions I'll answer, you know, whatever you want to know.

I mean, I wish I can help, you know what they were, you know, you know. Bryce Rhodes' co-defendants are brought in for a proffer. This is a high-stakes meeting. You have attorneys from both sides, and they're expected to tell the full truth in exchange for consideration on their charges. So step by step, Anne Juan and Jacori lay out what happened the night. that Christopher Jones, Maurice Gordon, and Larry Ardway were killed. This is locking in a story that investigators can test against the evidence. Anwan and Jacori were already at the house with Bryce Rhodes.

And there was another individual, Toreen Coleman. Bryce said, we need to get these boys over here. We need to get them over here. We need to teach them a lesson. So Bryce decided to go over and pick them up, and they go to the apartment. What Anwan said was true. They were there having a good time.

Maurice and Jacori got into a physical altercation. Well, while this fight was going on, Bryce Road stepped in, and that's where it went downhill. Bryce decided it was time. He separated the two brothers, Larry and Maurice. He tied them up, gagged them, and put hoods over their heads, put one boy in the bathroom. Bryce stabbed him and then he pushed the first brother over to the side and brought the other brother out and it basically repeated. Police know that Anwan and Jacori are not the masterminds of this, that there is someone

else behind this, that it's most likely Bryce Rhodes. So during this truthful testimony, it all comes out that that. not only did Bryce Rhodes stab their friends, but they stabbed their friends as well at the direction of Bryce Rhodes. Out of all causes of death, Sharpforce injuries might very well be the most intimate because it's a matter of taking an edged weapon

and driving it into somebody over and over and over and over again. When I first heard about this case, torture came to mind for me. Bryce, Tyrene, and Jacori and Anwan carried out the boys in laundry baskets to Bryce's car. And Bryce Rhodes told Ann Juan or Jacori to clean up the house. One of the things he said that will stick in my head to this day is that when they're loading up the two boys into the baskets, he looks at everybody, Anwan, us and says, well, I'm going to take his shoes. He don't need those anymore. He says that they took the clothes to a dumpster, threw all the stuff, the laundry baskets, everything into a dumpster

and set it on fire. And Detective Brian Peters and Detective Metzler had this amazing idea. Let's pull all of the dumpster fires in the city and they find it. And not only did they find it, they donned Tyvex suits and jumped in it. Now we have to be. have evidence with blood stains, clothing, objects that we can actually put forensic evidence to when you find a pillow or a towel in a dumpster that matches the pillows and the towels in the condo. In our work, that's called a clue. Not just that, two witnesses saw Bryce Rhodes, his car, and another individual inside that car at the dumpster, starting it on fire and leaving. Everything is starting to move pretty quick. Bryce Rhodes, Ann Juan Carter, Jacori Taylor,

and a fourth young man, Tieran Coleman, are all charged for their roles in the murders of Christopher Jones, Maurice Gordon, and Larry Ordway. Those proffers solidified everything, our worst nightmares, that these boys were just brutally murdered, all because they told their mom that they witnessed a murder and all because the mom who was still communicating with Bryce Rhodes said, I know what you did. But the story doesn't end there. No, Bryce Rhodes definitely make sure to keep things interesting ahead of his trial. Moving forward came all of the antics. You couldn't find an attorney to take this case. So this is already a highly unusual case where you have two. You have two. You're just spinning his face. So this is already a highly unusual case where you have

two teenagers killed where you have an innocent bystandard murdered. And then it gets even crazier when Bryce Rhodes shows up in court. Your excuse if you'd like to go. Nice, cheap shot. You're a coward. Nice cheat shot. You're a coward. You're a coward.

He is fighting with his own attorney. I think they had to be separated. He spit at his attorney. The second time he came into court, it was he was probably more suited up than Hannibal He was at a spit mask, he was all bound up, and he still, through the binding, he still told a judge, look, I can find out where you live. So you're saying you're going to find out where I live at? He goes in front of another judge.

He says whatever he wants to say. He curses. At one point, Bryce told the judge that he was racist and a member of the KKK. I've been covered in trials for 25 years where I've never seen a defendant that basically ran the courtroom. And this goes on for years. During this time, Bryce Rhodes attends hearing after hearing and there is problem after problem. And it is ultimately determined that he is ineligible for the death penalty due to mental illness. He had an opportunity, particularly with these two young men.

Imagine being a male role model in their life. and he screwed that up. He screwed it up to the point of a terminal event. Come to find out, he was a suspect and several others. Three other murders that I know of. And we didn't know that until after we had already locked him up. Generally in Louisville, a murder case will take anywhere from a year to two, maybe three.

Sometimes you'll get a case, it'll take four years. This case started in 2016, but did not end until 2023. Now this trial eventually gets underway in December of 2023. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, callous and casual was the first murder. The two that followed were calculating and cruel.

One night with Bryce Rhodes, it came upon an idea. The idea was, basically there was a head out on someone. The man on the pavement there is Christopher Jones. He was just in the wrong place in the wrong time. Bryce Rhodes became aware by overhearing a phone conversation with Jacori talking to Maurice. But they were talking about the murder they had, what their family knew about it. Had the boys over there, Bryce Rhodes said it was time to discipline Maurice. And then Bryce Rhodes took a knife and began stabbing over and over and over again.

And then they brought Larry into the room. And then they repeated the process. An Juan Carter and Jacori Taylor plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for truthful testimony against Bryce Rhodes at trial. During trial, Anwan Carter gives everything out. He doesn't hold anything back. He talks about the fact and admits that he stabbed his friend. We put both in the bathroom and take a vote. What's this vote on?

She said, I don't know when they say no. I just say, yeah. What's running through your mind? Make sure I get out. Try to say somebody else, make sure I'm safe. And what would have stopped you from getting out? Probably five, probably five, probably, probably go along with it. What would have happened?

Probably been with him, probably in the same situation, same fate. Jacori and Anwan's stories, although vary a little bit, are pretty much identical. So we got kind of a good picture of what happened that night and how just absolutely horrible. It must have been for that boy that was in the bathroom. hearing his brother getting stabbed and getting just beat and killed, knowing that you're next. Mr. Taylor, how are you connected to this case? You need to answer the question? We got nothing to see.

Okay, Mr. Taylor, I want to turn to the May 4th. I ain't got nothing to say. I respect what you're doing here, but I ain't got nothing to say about the incident. Now at first, Jacori Taylor refuses to speak, and it is clear that he is holding back emotions. Mr. Taylor, are you on 44 straight the night that Christopher Jones is shot? I ain't got nothing to say. He eventually opens up about the night Christopher Jones is killed. This is the shooting that ultimately leads to the deaths of Maurice and Larry, Taylor's friends.

You're driving down 41st Street, you're in the backseat, and on following. What happens? rode around, Maurice rode around. He stopped the car, and he seen somebody in the middle of the street. And Bryce told him, got the street, shot him. Who shot him? Bryce, he never seen nobody, like, get shot, you know what I mean? So, I'm not going to lie.

We was all scared, you know what I mean? And we was young. And so we didn't really, we just went along with it. Any of you, um, discuss this process this person. prior to May 21st. Yeah, me and Maurice did. And Larry, he told me he wasn't messing with Bryce anymore because of the situation.

He feared they would tell him, so he said, we can't mess with them no more. Get him back for telling him. I remember him trying to break free and he made him, he pinned him down and began stabbing him. Then after it was all, he was down. He had me the knife and made me stab him his whip. The state presents all the evidence that was collected throughout this investigation, ultimately calling nearly 20 witnesses to the stand.

As for Bryce Rhodes' defense, on the other hand, they focus on cross-examination to try to discredit the state's witnesses, rather than calling any witnesses of their own. I stabbed him. I stabbed Maurice in his side. I drove on him. I ran him over. Ladies and gentlemen, these are quotes from someone involved in this case, but these are not quotes from Bryce Rhodes. Ann Juan Carter talking about killing his best friend, Maurice Gordon, and running over a helpless Christopher Jones.

Anne-Wan Carter is the prosecution's main witness in this trial. I think you'll find that there aren't any eyewitnesses who were not themselves involved in these crimes. The Louisville Metro Police Department found tire tracks and footprints at the scene where Larry and Maurice's bodies were found. The tire tracks could not be linked to Bryce's vehicle. The footprints did not match Price's shoes. Price's fingerprints were not on any evidence. Ann Juan Carter gave a name, the police took it, and ran with it. Up to that point, all they had was kids killing other kids.

They wanted an adult to stick it to. And here we are. Did you tell Detective Tinelli that you hadn't heard anything or didn't know anything about Maurice and Larry's death at first? Yeah. And then later, you changed your mind. Is that correct? Did you tell the detective at that point that you weren't close to Rambo?

Yeah. Do you remember telling Officer Tonelli that you were not involved in the crime? Yeah. Eventually, you changed your story again for a third time, correct? Bryce's road's defense was that he was being set up by pulling. police and that these three teenagers, they were all part of the murders. They had nothing to lose by just saying, well, he, Bryce Rose did it. The defense for Bryce Rose said, this, this are not the most credible people.

They've, they've admitted to you they were also involved in the cleanup and getting rid of the bodies. You were definitely involved in these deaths. Try it. I was present. Yes, sir. You don't really want to answer that question, right? If I was there, it's just as guilty, right? A little bit more than there.

I was there. You told this jury that Maurice actually started something with you. Yes, sir. You're saying Maurice pulled the knife on you. Yes, sir. He picked up a knife that Bryce had, that Bryce carried with him to attack me. with it to charge a meet with it.

The defense is basically saying the jury cannot listen to these witnesses because they are just as guilty. It may have done the whole thing themselves. Following days of testimony and surprisingly no outbursts from Bryce Rhodes during the course of this trial, it takes the jury less than five hours to come back with their verdict. Has the jury been able to reach a verdict in this case? Murder asked Christopher Jones. We, the jury, found the defendant guilty of murder.

Murder as to Maurice Gordon. We, the jury found the defendant guilty of murder. Murder as to Larry Ordway. We, the jury, found the defendant, guilty of murder. So three co-defendants had cut deals with police, various amounts of prison time. While Bryce Rhodes, the jury eventually found him guilty of three counts of murder, again. again, the death penalty was off the table, so they gave him the max they could. Three months after the trial, during the penalty phase to sentence Bryce Rhodes, the families

of Christopher, Maurice, and Larry have their chance to speak before the court. This has been painful for me and my family. What he did is just unthinkable. On the behalf of my son and my family, we forgive, but we forgive for ourselves. We don't for him. I've been waiting seven years, seven long years for this, this day on December the 18th, when they found Bryce Rose guilty. Little Larry played football. Little Reese wanted music, and he took that from them.

You know, I sat in this courtroom and listened to everything. That one point that he did to my grandkids. It just took me right there how you just mutilated them like an animal. God's a vengeance is man who says the Lord. So you can find the Lord anywhere, anywhere. And I hope you do find Jesus. This has been by far one of the most tragic cases

I've ever been involved in. Everything about this case is horrific. And so the court will follow the recommendation of the jury in line with the law and impose the sentence of life without parole. I've dealt with all kinds of criminals from the gamut in my career. And I say this without any reservation. Evil exists. And I've seen evil. It's scary and it's disheartening as a human being. I'm glad he's off the streets. I hate that he ruined so many lives. But at the end of the day, there's nothing. There's not enough words. There's not enough tears. There's not enough, you know, thoughts and prayers that you could

send anybody's way that are going to replace these three precious souls that have all been taken away.