Bryan Anthony Rhoden charged with 15 criminal counts for triple murder on Georgia golf course
Rhoden, an aspiring rapper, is charged with a crime that investigators still don't have a motive for
Bryan Anthony Rhoden has been hit with 15 counts of criminal charges in connection with the July 3 murder of three men at a country club in Kennesaw, Georgia. The suspect was arrested on July 8, as previously reported by theGrio.
While initially charged with three counts of murder, three counts of aggravated assault and two counts of kidnapping after his arrest in DeKalb County, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a Cobb County grand jury has now issued a total of 15 criminal counts: three counts of malice murder, five counts of felony murder, three counts of aggravated assault, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and one count of evidence tampering.
Rhoden, 23, is being held without bond in Cobb County Jail.
Rhoden, an Atlanta resident, allegedly bound and gagged two of the victims and drove them to the Pinetree County Club in Kennesaw on July 3.
The men were identified as Paul Pierson, 76, of Topeka, Kansas and Henry Valdez, 46, of Anaheim, California. Gene Siller, 46, the director of the golf course, is believed to have happened on the scene, according to Fox News 5. Siller was killed by a single gunshot to the head.
The AJC reports that Valdez was also killed with a single gunshot to the head, while Pierson was shot several times in the back, arms, leg, and buttocks. Pierson is listed as being the owner of the pickup truck that Rhoden was driving.
All three bodies were found on the golf course’s 10th hole. A member of the country club, John Lavender, was at the golf course when the incident happened.
“I was at the driving range, heard about the truck being on the course so I went to see what was going on,” Lavender to Fox News 5. “All of the sudden you hear five, six booms go off.”
Rhoden, described as an aspiring rap artist, known as B.Rod, has had previous run-ins with the law. Per theGrio, in 2016, when he was 18, he was charged with shooting a student at Georgia State University, where Rhoden was also attending. In that case, according to the AJC, although the shooting was described as drug-related, neither student was charged and according to Atlanta’s 11 Alive, that case was sealed.
Though authorities didn’t realize he was a murder suspect at the time, Rhoden was arrested approximately nine hours after the bodies were found on the golf course. He was initially arrested by Chamblee police on July 3 while driving a black Maserati with temporary tags, the AJC reported.
He was released on July 6 by Cobb County Police after being charged with several misdemeanors including a DUI, a headlight violation, using a fake ID, driving without insurance, driving an unregistered vehicle, and using a license plate to conceal the identity of a vehicle.
Rhoden was re-arrested just two days later for the murders when he came back to DeKalb County jail to claim the “significant” amount of money seized from him in the traffic stop.
Although authorities state that while no motive has been uncovered at this time, Rhoden is suspected of being the “lone shooter.”
One of Valdez’ friends told the AJC that Rhoden knew the two men he brought to the golf course from the cannabis trade.
In Jan. 2020, Rhoden was detained by the K-9 unit at Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport with $19K in cash after they sniffed marijuana in one of his bags. Authorities acting on a tip got him to agree to give up the cash, but he was arrested for assaulting two officers in the process.
Rhoden bonded out on the case that is still pending, per the AJC.
Rhoden’s lawyer, Bruce Harvey, who was also his lawyer in the shooting case, told the AJC, “This is only the first step on a long journey and the issues will be joined soon.”
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