Silenced by Violence: The Kentucky Triple Murders

♪ 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, you're lying in and 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 two people, 50, and at least, oh my god. Somebody said I'm all fine. It looks like two kids' room. 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 around midnight. When gunshots ring out in this westside 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' 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 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 any 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 drive. 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, look 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. 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 start digging. Digging at 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 as a town with more than a hundred, close to 200 murders a year. It was probably 15 seconds at 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 discover they are very wrong and things get a lot more complicated. I don't know what I better do. Where's your heart just going? I know how there's two people this week in the alley. Oh my God, I'm wearing it in between 40 of Street 5 and 39. These people are not breathing at all. Is that correct? Start the scene. Okay. It looks like they're in the order of 1718. It was within just a couple of weeks of the murder. Of Christopher Jones, where an additional crime scene was found. And this one is quite brutal. I'm in an alley between 40 and 40. It's too dead by the way. They look like they are burned up. The inside of the home of the house. It looks like somebody said I'm all fine. It looks like two. Okay. We're going to get the first available unit started that way. Man, just stay away from OK. 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 that they drive up to the back and dump them that way. They carry them through the inside the home and drop them off in the back. We see horrible things all the time. But man can do the 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 a little value they put on human life they're treated as 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 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. 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 a assistant principal at a school that said, "I think these two boys are Larry and Maurice, their 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, "Would 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 got to 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 claimed the two teens found dead behind a house were her sons. The bodies of the boys found to burn 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. I'm almost going to know who they're involved with. She's going to try to fill into blanks for them to try to understand what is this narrative that led them to dislocation and not only her, but anybody else that she has personal knowledge of that they had associated themselves with. That leads us to the first time we heard the name, Rambo. We heard that name, it just rang out. were like, "Who's 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, new Bryce Rhodes, in a relationship style communication where they were seeing each other, which adds a whole different dynamic to this situation. Is she jaded? Is she just throwing his name out? Is it a bad situation that's turned worse? This is the first turn of events that actually gave him a direction. I stand back and interview the mom and the uncle. They talk about their two best friends, Cory Taylor and Ann Wankarger. One of the big breaks, police, God, was when Maurice and Larry's mother called one of their phones and a teen answered. She said, "Where are my kids?" Ann Wankarger answered. And Cory was with him. Detective Vance and two other detectives decided to go to where Ann Wankarger lived. The adult that owns the house lets the detectives in. Detective Vance looks over and he sees Ann Wankarger attempting to shove the phone under the bed and hide it. And there is one other thing that stands out about what Ann Wank'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 haven't had the picture of the shoes that they were wearing. We won't behold guess who shoes is wearing Maurice's. That's all we need. You have several different paths to 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 sort of 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 try and sort of create a communication path. Some of this, I mean, do you know what happened to him? He lost him up so I'm just saying he was going to take to a park. What was that? It was just like two days ago. This is my question. Is it your mom? So does she talk to you Saturday on your phone? Well, when did you get three sister's phone? We just thought about it. I just thought that you're your mom. 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 at any time. I'm good friends with race. I'm good friends with Larry's. We got in trouble before and all of a sudden, Muno's got his phone and I'm like, okay, I'll buy his phone and I don't ask any questions. I was hit to the police, we said it. Everything was myself. So how did you know it was this? I didn't know that was Muno's phone. We didn't talk to him then. Now, Ann one Carter 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 Marisa's phone. But Muno, whoever that is, has nothing to do with this case according to police. Friends, big groups. So nobody said a single word about it. He was Marisa and Larry and some stuff. They probably, in fact, lose the ride, because no, they would take you and maybe post a picture of family. There is this stuff. I've been doing this for 10 years. And that was no robbery. No, not even close. Complicating the investigation for police are pictures on social media of Larry and Marisa. 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, this should be an even cause to family members who don't have years before you, should I? A lot of fun calls to. Marisa's mom, she. somebody was kind of full of their heads on her zone. Marisa's mom said she talked to you, and she talked to you, and she talked to you, and she's talking to you. She recognized your voice, and they told her, and they said that we'll find you going to have him call her later. So your mom said that you got back your face down there Saturday night. What member did you face down from? That was my cousin, Q. Did you say the last time you talked to Marisa for Larry was Friday night? It was two or three days ago. Two or three days ago. But I would put, you weren't about Saturday. Because your mom thought you were with them. So, you know, how kind to face him. So they were the call we got? They were kind. They were sweet. So they were the same, so you face them. Did you know, for a fact, that Larry was waiting for him at a talk to him at night? Did you tell us where you were at Saturday? Saturday was in Parkview. We would just tell him your day, man. Just simple. Saturday was about how I did later than I. That's what led me from my cousin's house. We learned Larry and Marisa'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 Marisa. 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. Bryce Rhodes, Antoine Quadrant. It's these other teenagers who looked at Bryce as a mentor. And really was kind of the leader of this group. Now, Antoine Quadrant somewhat changes his tune, now saying he doesn't even know Rambo. You got my fears. When you're fierce, it's probably when you're about right? You don't fear Rambo. He told me in the car, it was in the casbond 28. It was when he was an older guy. And it seemed like a trooper. So you've never been in the car with Rambo. Any of his cars? No, no, no, no, no. Let's say that something really bad happens. Okay. And you are a part of it, but you have to be there and you wouldn't necessarily. And then a certain person involved in that, they see my tell on the stem. Something really bad happens to you. Should we go after the people already? That's what we're doing. Just be honest with me. Help us for your friends. So we need anything. I know for a fact that you were on to us all about you. Okay. I know we know about Rambo. We started off talking to Antoine and it was exactly what we thought it was going to be. I don't know about this. I don't know about that. I started throwing some things out there. I mean, you could see that he was definitely having conflict about whether to talk to us and tell us or to just stay quiet. It's just your cell phone. I'm here, it's your phone car. You did not have to get it with Rambo, but she said, "No, you weren't with him." So tell us about the last thing, the last thing, the last information you know about him. 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 found Sunday. I want you to look at this. Those blunts were tortured, and their mama tends to see this. I think about the last minute of the life, what they want to do. Because I would imagine that's how it hurts me. 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. We see the people she's off. I will tell you this right now. I know for a fact, you don't have to be honest, okay? Because of the certain things we just found out. We am going to tell you right now that you were doing so deep as hell. There is a huge difference between being a suspect and being a witness. Between being someone that's cooperating to someone that's not. [inaudible] 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 mental conflict that was going on in Anne-Wine's brain was real. So Anne-Wine's 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 Anne-Wine is actually in. She went in and talked to Anne-Wine. 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 mean to hear you say that." "I wanted to talk to you guys." A new detective enters the room and they're hoping that this different strategy will draw more information from Anne-Wine Carter about the murder of his friends. Sometimes, as a detective, you have to look at the individual you're 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 reverent 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 want a lot of you, you don't want of me." "All right?" "What do you know about this?" "About this murder." "Well, I know that, the Saturday night, no clean take. Marry somewhere we have in the target, a black target." Like days before he heard Marry's, because I put my most speaker phone use, who said, "Well, he had, you know, f****** Rambo, it's like talking about him dead." And then we went over and Marry's, he started still with his money. He chopped me, he chopped me and my cousin off. But Marry's didn't say any car, because it was hungry. And we got the car with my cousin's brother, and then like, we went out, we had a little candy. We spent night there because we didn't want to go back over Rambo's. The next day, we went over, because my cousin, he had some stuff from the Rambo's trunk. He got his stuff, and we got back in the car. And then I got dropped off that parking lot. And now I don't know how, I don't know how to f*** that. He bit, bit. I wait until he. He starts giving bits and pieces of the truth, but still, Detective John Lesher knows more than Anne-One 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. "Marma, I'm a man, I'm a word, you're a man, you're a word." "We shook on it." All right, now 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, from everything I understand, you're in this, like, just as much as him. The next time that you see Rambo's wetting. The last time I seen him was, no Saturday. This past weekend, okay. "Were you seeing him at his house?" "What was he doing that night?" "And I was drinking, smoking, and stuff, and that was a reason, we're here now." "With the, Marie's and Larry?" "So Marie's and Larry are with him at his house Saturday night." "What time is that?" "We put up on the 11/13th of the book." "All three of you all, and then all three of them." "You have smoke and weed over at his house?" "What time do you leave?" "We left about an hour later." "What did Marie's and Larry and they said to him for real looks?" And Juan Carter alludes to police that there had been a disagreement between Larry and Marie's and roads. "Here's a cold-hearted killer that the people are going to look at, and you'd be like, "What the hell's wrong with this kid?" "Are you somebody that got mixed up in some stuff?" "There's a blank page. You're not going to ride on it. I'm just going to listen to you." "Okay, but I'm going to call you on the bulls**t that I hear. Let's start over." "Okay?" "I was on the Rambo's house." "I'm like my quarry." "I could have quarry, and Marie's thinking of going to a fight." And Marie's peaking up a big knife, and Marie looks at it from the Rambo snake, and it's like in the yard. He tied him up. He tied him up with something. He tied his brother up. He made his brothers in the bathroom. And then he made me, he made my wrist in his knees. I'm like beg for forgiveness. And when he put the wagon over his head, put a rag in his mouth, and then he stabbed him and peaked. "Rambo, dude." "Okay, that Rambo's house." "So you see this happen?" "Holy s**t." "You've been holding that in this whole time?" I think Ann won 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?" "Did he put anything down?" He put a, for the s**t a quilt, no. "Before you did all this." "Where's the quilt out now?" "I burned it." "What happens to his brother?" "Well, when we move from Marie to the sad, when we burn his brother, we put it to the wagon of his head, he put the wagon of his head, and put the sock in his mouth." I'm like, "Sorry, it's time to be in the tube." He put his, he puts him in crates, he left me in glory at the house to clean it up. He took them all in until 41st and took them in the alley and burned them. He's stuck here and lost them burned. The details that Ann won Carter describes are absolutely chilling. It's difficult to comprehend. 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, it was telling all these things." "Okay, what were they telling?" They had Vimbo and Chaston wagon and had it by the park. "What was that? This one?" "The guy died." Ann won Carter made the statement that Rambo or Bryce Rhodes was really, really upset because he was afraid that Marie 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. 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 Anwan Carter had knew anything about Christopher Jones. He was near light blue skype, light blue composite, and he put a little bit, he cut his lights off. And he rode in there slowly, the deal was turned around and he said he had a street [bleep] and he pulled off, he put off, he didn't know if he did it or not until he watched the news. Why did he shoot that guy? I don't know, because he has some money in his head, but he shot him on that, he shot him on the dude. He kills these two kids, because these two kids know about that? Because he told his mom what. The problem is for investigators though. Initially, it is not necessarily possible to connect Christopher Jones' death to this other crime scene that has 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 Cory with you on the 41st one, too? And those two guys? There you go. Well, it's a 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 wouldn't dare tell me what you know, what I know, what I'm doing to stay up is what I am. Do you 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, summer 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 got to hide these boots, they got blood on them. That boyfriend was a jacory tailor. We go over there, we collect the boots, and lo and behold, we find a jacory tailor. I was there. I don't know. It was just, it was stabbed and it was burned. That's all I know. I already know. I want to see if you tell me the truth. They need to be involved in the truth, be them. Jacory and Anwan, 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 their life, and they're kind of sort of gravet hitting towards price roads. 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, I don't know why he was mad at him. 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. You know, 41st of them, if you say it, I guess you feel like they were going to tell what I'm, that's what I'm, it's what I'm hearing, so I guess they might own, found out. Rambo couldn't handle that. You just lost it, I guess. You feel like they were snitching. I've got a dose of the cop, and I'm not going to send him a lab. You do it. I'm trying to keep him alive. Rice gets him 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 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 Rhodes goes, "There he is!" and shots ring out. To be honest with you, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man. To be honest with you, he just, he just wanted to like, so his toughness and so how tough he was. He wanted to show us, he wanted to see how tough we were, so if you don't have a bunch of young people, you want them to be a 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 as 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. Of course he said that Bryce thought 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 Anwan 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." When your initial thought as an investigator, whenever you smell chemicals, you're like, "Oh, 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 the heat impacts DNA deposition. It degrades it or it eradicates it to a great degree. So you're not necessarily going to find anything on the bodies. So your fallback position at that point, Tom, is what are their 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 or four times. His blood, you've just got to look. We found traces of blood on a vase on the fake flowers and then 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 rice roads." 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 seen with them or talked to them. Anyway, 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 got it. Maurice. And Larry. I don't know. Yeah. Have you seen them lately? No, I'm seeing them 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 them and where it was? Oh, probably it's circle pay or a round down sale. I see them like do the neighborhood and I might see them out playing basketball and stuff like it. What day? What's the day? Today's Tuesday. I don't know. Part of round last Tuesday, we 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 and don't like cool play basketball and cool a lot of people. Well let me ask you how tight were you with a did you hang out with them on a regular basis. That was cool. Yeah, we all got different times, you know, different times. All right. It's a part of play basketball, you know, might go out to eat or something. That was cool. Uh, you know what school they went to or anything like that? No. No, the family. Oh, yeah, yeah. I know their uncle. I know their mother. I used to date their mother, uh, part of like last summer, used to talk to her and stuff. Has anybody said anything about them or anything like that, running their hood? Um, I actually teach that he takes them a phone today. Um, their uncle? Yeah. Talk about, uh, he's like, uh, something about their day or something like that and I'm like, I'd take something like, are you joking? You know what I'm saying? And he never takes me back. 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. I mean, I mean, y'all, you know, y'all got the questions, you know, you know what I mean? I mean, I mean, y'all, y'all got the questions I have. You know, whatever you want to know. I mean, I wish I could help you with what I would if I don't, you know. Bryce Road's 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, Anwan and Jakory lay out what happened, the nights that Christopher Jones, Maurice Gordon and Larry Arnway were killed. This is locking in a story that investigators contest against the evidence. Anwan and Jakory were already at the house with Bryce Road, and there was another individual to read 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 Jakory 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 Jakory are not the masterminds of this, that there is someone else behind this, that it's most likely Bryce Road. So during this truthful testimony, it all comes out that not only did Bryce Roads stab their friends, but they stab their friends as well, at the direction of Bryce Roads. Out of all causes of death, sharp force 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 Jakory and Anwan carried out the boys in linger baskets to Bryce's car, and Bryce Roads told Anwan and Jakory 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 and Anwan does 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. Through all the stuff, the laundry baskets, everything into a dumpster and set it on fire. And Detective Brian Peters and Detective Metzler have 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 dawned Tyvex suits and jumped in it. Now we have evidence with blood stains, clothing, objects that we can actually put forensic evidence to when you find a pillow or a towel and 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 Roads, 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 Roads, Anwan Carter, Jaquery Taylor, and a fourth young man, Tyrann Coleman, are all charged for their roles in the murders of Christopher Jones, Marie Scorden, 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 Roads, said, "I know what you did." But the story doesn't end there. No, Bryce Roads definitely make sure to keep things interesting ahead of his trial. Moving forward, came all over the antics. You couldn't find an attorney to take this case. So, this is already a highly unusual case, where you have two teenagers killed, where you have an innocent, bystander murdered. And then it gets even crazier when Bryce Roads shows up in court. Here, excuse if you'd like to get this. Nice teacher. You were coward. Nice cheeky. Coward with six. He is fighting with his own attorney, and I think they had to be separated. He spit at his attorney. The second time he came into court, he was probably more suited up than a Hannibal Lecter. He was at a spit mask. He was all bound up, and he's still through the binding. He's still told a judge, "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 Roads attends hearing, after hearing, and there is problem after problem. 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 in several others. Three other murders that I know of. 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 they'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. Dallas' in casual was the first murder. The two that followed were calculating and cruel. One night, with Bryce Roads, it came upon an idea. The idea was, basically, it was a hit out on someone. The man on the pavement there is Christopher Jones. He was just in the wrong place in the wrong time. Bryce Roads became aware by overhearing a phone conversation with Jacori, talking to Maurice, but they were talking about the murder they had with their family knew about it. Had the boys over there, Bryce Roads said it was time to discipline Maurice, and then Bryce Roads took a knife and began stabbing him over and over and over again, and then they brought Larry into the room, and then they repeated the process. N.1 Carter and Jacori Taylor plead guilty to lesser charges. In exchange for truthful testimony against Bryce Roads at trial. During trial, N.1 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 of them in the bathroom and took a vote. What's this vote on? They said, "Down." I said, "No." I said, "Yeah." What's wrong with your mind? I said, "Yeah, make sure I get out." I said, "Yeah, I'm see." What would it stop to you from getting out? What would it stop to you from getting out? Jacori and N.1 stories, although very a little bit, are pretty much identical. So we got a good picture of what happened that night and how just absolutely horrible. We must have been for that boy that was in the bathroom, here and 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. I've got none to sleep. Okay, Mr. Taylor, I want to turn to the May 4th. I ain't getting none to sleep. I was speaking to John Dorker, but I ain't getting none to sleep, but they answered it. Now at first, Jacori Taylor refuses to speak, and it is clear that he is holding back emotions. Mr. Taylor, are you on 41st straight tonight for this project or should I? 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 all driving down 41street, you're in the back seat, you know, I'm following what happens. He rode around, Maurice rode around, stopped the car, he seen somebody in the middle of street, and Bryce told him got the street, shot him. He shot him? Bryce, he ain't never seen nobody like, get shot, you know me, so I'm not gonna lie, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out and do something, I'm just gonna go out 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 more recent 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 and one Carter talked about killing his best friend, Maurice Gordon, and running over a helpless Christopher Jones and one Carter is the prosecution's main witness in this trial. I think you'll find that there weren't any eyewitnesses who were not themselves involved in these crimes. The local 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 Bryce's shoes. Bryce's fingerprints were not on any evidence and one 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 Tanelli 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? Do you remember telling Officer Tanelli that you were not involved in the crime? Eventually you changed your story again for a third time, correct? Bryce's road defense was that he was being set up by police and that these three teenagers, they were all part of the murders. They had nothing to lose by just saying, "Well, Bryce rose dead." The defense of Bryce rose and said, "This is not the most incredible people. 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? Right? If I was there, it's just as guilty, right? A little bit more than there, right? I was there. You told this jury that Maurice actually started something with you. Yes, sir. You're saying Maurice told the knife on you. Yes, sir. He picked up a knife that Bryce had and Bryce carried with him to attack me with it. To target me with it. The defense is basically saying the jury cannot listen to these witnesses because they are just as guilty and 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. As 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. Murder as to Larry Ordway. So three code defendants had cut deals with police, various amounts of prison time. While Bryce Rhodes, the jury eventually found him guilty of three count of murder. 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, the 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 ourselves. We don't forgive for him. Oh, been waiting seven years, seven long years for this. This day, on December 18th, when it found Bryce Rhodes guilty. No Larry played football, little Reese wanted music. And he took that from him. You know, I said in his courtroom and listen to everything. That one point that he did to my grandkids, it, it just took me right there. How you just mutilated in like an animal. God said, "Vinjus is a man who says to more." So you can find the Lord in 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 imposed the sentence of life without growth. 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. [BLANK_AUDIO]