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- [00:02]
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- [00:27]
Scott Weinberger
So good, so good.
- [00:29]
Sponsor Announcer
So good.
- [00:30]
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- [00:57]
Detective Brian Peters
I've been around death and destruction for most of my career, but I will say this, this is the only case that I still see the visions of the kids. It just cuts you to the core that someone would be so just ev.
- [01:26]
Scott Weinberger
I'm Scott Weinberger, investigative journalist and former Deputy Sheriff.
- [01:31]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
I'm Anna Sega Nicolasi, former New York
- [01:33]
Scott Weinberger
City Homicide Prosecutor and this is Homicide360. Before we get started, we wanted to invite you to check out the Homicide360 Patreon page where you can engage with our H360 community and also find extra content.
- [01:55]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
We also want to warn you that this episode contains graphic content and may be too disturbing for some Solving and prosecuting a homicide involves examining the crime from every possible angle to seek a truly 360 degree perspective of the evidence, the victim, the suspects, and the violent act itself.
- [02:18]
Scott Weinberger
This comprehensive approach to an investigation not only makes sure that no stone is left unturned, as they say, but also also that there are no cracks in the case that could jeopardize this critical quest for justice.
- [02:31]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Of course, time is of the essence in the race to catch a killer, but a careful, methodical examination can often pay big dividends from identifying additional accomplices, additional crimes, and potentially even more victims.
- [02:46]
Scott Weinberger
So on the night of May 4, 2016, a 40 year old man named Christopher Jones was was walking along South 41st street near his home in Louisville, Kentucky when two cars slowed to a crawl beside him.
- [03:01]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
A window rolled down and then suddenly multiple shots were fired from the lead car, striking Christopher twice and leaving him bleeding and motionless on the side of the road as both cars sped off into the night.
- [03:15]
Scott Weinberger
Homicide Detective Aaron Tinelli was in the bubble back at the Louisville Metro pd, which means he was on call to pick up case and he described the initial police response to the shooting.
- [03:28]
Detective Brian Peters
It was the west end of louisville, which is typically, I would say, the rougher part of louisville. You know, higher crime rate. Anytime we have gunshots, obviously, cops are going to respond.
- [03:38]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Neighbors from several nearby homes had heard the two gunshots and called 911. Some even went outside to investigate, Although no one was able to provide police more than just the most basic information.
- [03:50]
Detective Brian Peters
When the call came out for the murder, you, know, it was really just a man down in the middle of the street. No idea of what the situation was or what was going on.
- [04:01]
Scott Weinberger
First responders rushed to evaluate Christopher's injuries, Identifying at least two life threatening gunshot wounds to his upper body.
- [04:10]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
But it was also clear that christopher had suffered other traumatic injuries as well.
- [04:15]
Detective Brian Peters
Come to find out, obviously, he wasn't just shot. He was also struck by a vehicle.
- [04:20]
Scott Weinberger
His injuries were severe, and sadly, the louisville local and beloved father Would not survive.
- [04:26]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
His sudden and violent death Came as a devastating shock to his family and everybody who knew him.
- [04:33]
Detective Brian Peters
He grew up there. His family was there. He was actually walking from a family's house. The family was a good family. He worked every day. He wasn't like in the streets.
- [04:44]
Scott Weinberger
The truth was that this part of louisville did see its own share of violence, including similar drive by shootings, Rival local gangs. But according to his family, Christopher had no criminal background, no gang affiliations, or no at risk behavior that may have put him in contact with that world.
- [05:04]
Detective Brian Peters
Mr. Jones was just a guy that goes to work every day, comes home every day.
- [05:09]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
So why would he have been targeted? Was it a robbery? Some sort of personal dispute? Back at the crime scene, Detectives were already on the search for clues to help answer any of those questions and
- [05:20]
Scott Weinberger
for any potential witnesses to the shooting that could either confirm or contradict their hunch that christopher was likely just an innocent victim in the wrong place at the wrong time in that area.
- [05:34]
Detective Brian Peters
News travels quick. So people started arriving on scene, and brian was evaluating it as it came to him. But to be honest with you, there wasn't much to the scene.
- [05:44]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Unfortunately, there was very little forensic evidence found at the scene. No spent shells or bullet casings, and no broken glass or tire tracks.
- [05:53]
Scott Weinberger
And despite the shooting occurring on a residential street, none of the neighbors could report seeing or hearing anything out of the ordinary before the gunshots. And by that time, it was too late to see the killer or to save christopher jones.
- [06:09]
Detective Brian Peters
The idea that there was going to be any kind of camera system or anything that would help to shed some light on what exactly happened, There wasn't. You know, there was no ring cameras. There was no street cameras. There was nothing that could really just kind of sort of give you a
- [06:25]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
lead to go on, at least not at first. While there was no footage from the immediate area around the crime scene, investigators expanded their search to cover all angles in and out of the neighborhood. A true 360 degree view. And eventually they found something.
- [06:41]
Detective Brian Peters
Well, as the investigation went on, they were able to get some video from a house that had a camera, which initially did not show anybody on foot except for Mr. Jones, but it did show vehicles leaving the area. So the assumption was, you know, that it was a vehicle almost like a drive by.
- [07:01]
Scott Weinberger
The footage didn't capture the identity of either driver, but it was good for at least the color, make and model, which was a start. But just to dig in a little bit more, when you walk into a scene like this, there's nothing there. No casings, no debris, really no witness detail. On the surface, it kind of feels like you're already behind. But I've learned that sometimes the absence is the clue. Because in most shootings, especially ones involving younger offenders, they're just completely messy. There's casings everywhere over fire, panic, noise. This isn't that. It feels really intentionally controlled. So anesthetic. When you hear that, you're looking at a case that at least early on looks kind of random. How does that kind of control at the scene start to shape the way you think about what we're really dealing with?
- [07:50]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
I mean, I look at that, I think, unfortunately in a lot of shooting cases, you don't get a lot of evidence. Right, because they're just that you either are using a gun that will eject shell casings and then you get them, or if not, right, depending on the type of gun you're using. Well, then if there's no casings ejected, you've got nothing. And here, if there's a car driving by and shooting, what else would you expect there to be? Right. But I don't think the absence of evidence really points us in either direction because again, they could be looking for this person or they could have no idea who this person is. But unfortunately, it just leaves you that you've got to look at outside potential evidentiary things like if there's video surveillance, which there wasn't, and just hope that someone at some point can give you something. But, you know, for the meantime, Aaron's partner, who was actually handling this first part of the case, Detective Bryan Peters, he began the difficult but crucial process of talking to Christopher's family and friends to try to get a Deeper sense of who. Who the man was and if there might have been anything in his background that could have pointed to what happened and who may have done this. And, you know, Scott, that really kind of goes to your question, that, like, when there is nothing there, then you've really got to step even farther out to try to figure this out, which is exactly what they were trying to do.
- [09:03]
Detective Brian Peters
You know, your initial interview was always to get a background on the person that has suffered this tragedy. And when you do that, you're always looking for that little piece, that little thing that kind of sort of sets up for a suspect. There was nothing like that with Mr. Jones. You know, he was well liked. He, you know, worked every day. He was engaged in his family. You know, it wasn't like there was an overwhelming, glowing situation where you could look at it and say, oh, aha, that's the reason this happened, you know, So I think that that's what really honestly stumped Brian initially is the fact that there was no real, like, path of investigation, so to speak.
- [09:47]
Scott Weinberger
The nature of Christopher's injuries made one thing clear. This was a violent and intentional homicide. But the sheer randomness of it all was really going to complicate the investigation and was limiting early leads.
- [10:02]
Detective Brian Peters
You know, we're in a modern era, and so the idea was we got to start writing some search warrants. You know, you want to do CDRs, which are cellular data reports, See who was in the area, See if you can match that up with something, See if there's anything that can connect Mr. Jones to somebody else. Where did he come from? Where did he go?
- [10:20]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
But even after getting a search warrant for Christopher's cell phone, which he still had on him, by the way, helping to at least someone eliminate robbery as a motive. While in analyzing his cell records, here's what investigators knew. Christopher had not made or received any calls to anyone who was unknown, so no one that his family couldn't identify.
- [10:39]
Scott Weinberger
And location data proved he was exactly where he said he was on the night of the murder. Nothing out of the ordinary there.
- [10:47]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
In other words, there was no suspicious behavior or suspicious people revealed by his cell phone use, no secret plans or escalating conflicts. And so, despite their best efforts, police were coming up short on motive and suspects, and they sensed that this case was in danger already of going cold.
- [11:05]
Scott Weinberger
But you never know where the next lead will come from. It could be a tip, a hit on DNA, or in this case, from a different crime altogether.
- [11:15]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
On May 22, 2016, 18 days after Christopher Jones's Murder. Several young boys were playing in the alley behind their house on River Park Drive.
- [11:26]
Detective Brian Peters
It's a beautiful day. The kids are outside playing. They're playing ball, you know, throwing the football in the backyard. Somebody throws it too far, there's always that one guy that's like, I'll get it. He runs over there to get the football and stumbles upon these two bodies.
- [11:40]
Scott Weinberger
The bodies were on the ground next to each other behind an abandoned building. At first glance, they appeared to be children.
- [11:49]
Detective Brian Peters
And he ran back, told his mom, and the mom came, and then she called the police.
- [11:55]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
First responders rushed to the scene. But not even decades of experience could prepare them for what they encountered.
- [12:02]
Detective Brian Peters
To this day, the adults, the investigators that saw those two boys still talk about it as one of the most horrific scenes. And we've seen a lot. I can't imagine that little boy and how he feels to this very day about what he saw that day.
- [12:26]
Scott Weinberger
The bodies of what appeared to be two teens had clearly been dumped besides each other and then been burned almost beyond recognition. All signs pointed to a double homicide.
- [12:40]
Detective Brian Peters
I arrived on scene, and it was at the access point to where the two boys were located was an alley. So when I pulled up, when I got out of my car, I walked down the alley, and, you know, the group is there. I show up, and I'm of course not to be cliche, but you say the same, what do we got? You know, what are we looking at here? And then we walked over to where the two boys were located. I can remember thinking in my head at that very moment, what kind of animal would do this?
- [13:22]
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- [13:56]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
In May of 2016, Detective Aaron Tonelli was the assigned lead investigator on a double homicide in downtown Louisville. But right from the start, he knew there was nothing typical about these murders, if there even is such a thing. He described this crime scene as one of the most gruesome and disturbing that he has ever encountered.
- [14:17]
Detective Brian Peters
You got two boys, obviously teenage age, partially covered by a sheet and burnt and dumped like trash in the back of this abandoned house.
- [14:27]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
And even hearing Aaron say that, I mean, look, investigators, prosecutors, anyone working in this world, like, we're people too, right? So I think the way, if people say like, well, how do they do that? How does he do it? Right? Well, it's like you feel, you take a deep breath, you put your head down, get to work, and then you process it later if you can. I mean, that was certainly always my methodology. But I mean, do you agree with that, Scott? It's like we're all gonna feel and pretend that we're not is a ridiculous statement. But you still have a job to do.
- [14:56]
Scott Weinberger
I do. I 100% agree with that. I mean, two teens burned, left behind. It really hits you. I mean, there's no way around it. You feel it, you'd have to feel it. But almost immediately you have to shut that part down because if you don't, you just can't do the job. I mean, you start to narrow your focus. You know, what am I looking at? What's been done here and what's been missed. Because at a scene like that, it's not just violence, it's, it's deliberate. The burning, the covering, the way they were left. That someone's trying to control what gets seen and what doesn't get seen is what I was saying earlier. So in my mind I'm already asking, was this about anger, was it about panic? Or does someone think they're smart enough to get away with it? Because scenes like that, they usually tell you ana seeka a lot about who you're hunting for and, you know. Also complicating the investigation from the beginning was the difficulty for investigators even to be able to identify these victims.
- [15:55]
Detective Brian Peters
We had to identify these two bodies and we attempted to fingerprint them at the scene with no luck. Their fingertips were charred so bad it
- [16:06]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
was apparent that the victims bodies had been burned post mortem there, right behind the abandoned house. But investigators couldn't locate any witnesses, not to a car pulling up, not to the sight of flames or smoke. Nor could people offer any information to who these victims might be.
- [16:24]
Detective Brian Peters
Nothing. Not even a drop of information. Because, you know, you obviously can't bring people to the scene and say, do you know these boys?
- [16:32]
Scott Weinberger
But of course, investigators had to start from somewhere. So they decided to focus on the victim's injuries and the possible cause of death.
- [16:41]
Detective Brian Peters
And we started evaluating what the situation that we were looking at and had before us so we could start our investigation. And the first thing you need to do is kind of sort of understand what killed them, how they died.
- [16:55]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
And we just want to warn listeners that what follows is a detailed and graphic description of the injuries that may be overly disturbing to some we saw
- [17:06]
Detective Brian Peters
a couple puncture wounds on the corpses, on the boys. And you thought, oh, that might have been stabbed. You know, that's a possibility, because you don't want to. You don't want to get there and just rip. Start ripping things off. You got to document this. You got to document the location of the boys to the house and to the alley and stuff like that. Anything that you want to do, you want to start just basically blanketing a picture of pictures so that you can put this puzzle together farther down the line.
- [17:36]
Scott Weinberger
Investigators at the scene were eventually able to locate more than a dozen stab wounds on each victim from the neck area all the way down to the groin.
- [17:47]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
I mean, just the sheer number of wounds seemed to indicate that they were not inflicted haphazardly like you might see in a fight. They were deliberate, deep, as if whoever wielded the knife was in a violent frenzy with the obvious intent to kill.
- [18:02]
Scott Weinberger
And not only that, there didn't seem to be any defensive wounds, which is something we'd obviously look for. And that tells me that the victims were restrained, subdued in some way, potentially even tied up and tortured.
- [18:16]
Detective Brian Peters
I would definitely say it's definitely one of the worst I've ever seen. Not just because of the wounds, though. The wounds were actually very, very graphic and very disturbing. But the total disregard of humanity. It just cuts you to the core that someone would be so just evil, for lack of a better word, than to discard these two young boys and just treat them like refuse.
- [18:45]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Another important clue. There were no signs of a struggle at the location where the bodies were found, leading investigators to believe that the murders had occurred elsewhere, and the victims had been then brought to the abandoned building after the attack and not just dumped, but then doused with an accelerant and lit on fire.
- [19:03]
Detective Brian Peters
There's nothing that indicates at all that this incident occurred inside that house. And then we started evaluating the area around the children, and you could easily see where the car backed in or drove up in. The boys were dragged out of the car and dumped there.
- [19:20]
Scott Weinberger
With no ID on the victims and no witnesses, collecting any potential evidence from the scene became all the more critical.
- [19:29]
Detective Brian Peters
We took castings of the tires, and we took castings of footprints, because, you know, every little piece, you don't know how important it's going to be. And I even went as far as to grab the trash that was in the area, was in the backyard co located with the kids. I'm like, those are white castle boxes. Take all of those. You know, photograph them. Take them. We'll swab them from DNA. We're going to take it all because at this point we don't know who they are, how they got here. We know they weren't murdered here. So let's gather everything and start working our way through it.
- [20:04]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Piece by piece, the victims were transported to the medical examiner's office where the ME again attempted to obtain fingerprints. Now in a sterile environment to try to identify these teens, or at least what appeared to be teens, but both their hands and feet were too severely burned.
- [20:22]
Detective Brian Peters
No luck. But when we got to the ME's office, you know, the gravity of the murder really took hold of what these poor boys went through. The amount of stab wounds on their bodies was unbelievable. Unbelievable. If I'm recalling the exact numbers. One boy was stabbed 18 times and another boy was stabbed 22 or 23 times all over their body, from their genitals to their neck.
- [20:55]
Scott Weinberger
And this problem of identifying the victims, it didn't just complicate the investigation into their murders, it also made it impossible to notify the victim's family. Such an unfortunate situation.
- [21:09]
Detective Brian Peters
You know, we're at a loss at this point with how to identify these kids. So you gotta start thinking outside the box. We happen to have a forensic artist in our crime scene unit, Aaron Wright. And I came up with the idea and I ran it by my boss. I said, hey, listen, we obviously can't put these pictures up on the news, but Aaron Wright's a forensic artist. Let's have her draw some pictures of him and put the pictures up there.
- [21:38]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Using forensic reconstruction, they created artistic renderings of both victims of suitable for sharing with the public.
- [21:46]
Detective Brian Peters
Since we're in such a media driven society, it is ultra important to strike when the iron's hot. If we had waited a week, two weeks, a month to put out these photos, I mean, the initial shock is gone. And since they've just done all this news about this double homicide of these two boys and it's kind of sort of a hot button in the neighborhoods and the news media locally. That's the time to put it out. You can't wait. So we put it out over the local news stations and it just started flooding in with tips.
- [22:26]
Scott Weinberger
News of the double murder of two teenage boys grabbed headlines and it wasn't long before one person in the community thought he recognized the boys from the sketch.
- [22:37]
Detective Brian Peters
So when we put out this, these two photos, it was an assistant principal at a local middle school that said, I know these two boys, they weren't in school. So we got the two boys names
- [22:51]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
and according to the principal, 16 year old Maurice Gordon and 14 year old Larry Ordway were not just classmates, they were brothers.
- [23:01]
Scott Weinberger
Aaron and his partner had the grim task of making the death notification to Larry and Maurice's mother.
- [23:08]
Detective Brian Peters
The boy's mom was sitting in the front yard and we got out of the car and her initial response is, what did they do this time? So I looked at my sergeant, I said, I'm just going to show her a photo. As soon as I showed it to her, that was it. She said, that's my boy Larry. And she ran off screaming and just in hysterics. That is when the case just started moving at light speed. As far as information, Maurice and Larry
- [23:41]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
had different fathers, but had grown up together with their mom in a small house in Louisville. According to their friends, they were inseparable. Often seen playing together in nearby Wyandotte Park.
- [23:52]
Scott Weinberger
They were described as good natured kids who were well liked by teachers and peers alike. Larry loved to play football and Maurice, known as Reese to his friends, was an aspiring musician and rapper. Both of them dreamed of college and had bright futures in front of them.
- [24:10]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
But they were also teenagers and susceptible to the kinds of activities and influences that many young people can be. But so far in their young lives, according to friends and family, as far as they knew that that meant simply a school detention here and there, maybe a missed curfew, not the kind of trouble that would have made them a target for violence.
- [24:29]
Scott Weinberger
But according to their mother, there was one person in their life who had become a powerful and potentially destructive influence.
- [24:37]
Detective Brian Peters
Well, as soon as we were able to ID the two boys, one of the utterances that she just threw out there initially, like in her hysterics was it was Rambo. It was Rambo. He did it, he did it. I know he did it, but that's not usable evidence.
- [24:57]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
25 year old Bryce Rhodes, aka Rambo, was a friend of their mom's who had become an increasingly familiar presence in the boys lives.
- [25:06]
Detective Brian Peters
Bryce Rhodes came into their lives, you know, bought him shoes, took him out to eat, hung out with their mom, stuff like that.
- [25:15]
Scott Weinberger
But over the last year, he'd been spending more and more time with the boys and their young friends, letting them hang out at his apartment, use recording equipment and acting as kind of a big brother or mentor for kids who did not have strong male role models at home.
- [25:32]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
But eventually it was clear that Bryce Rhodes had become more than a mentor. He had become a malignant influence on Larry and Maurice, exposing them to a so called Gangster lifestyle that included crime, drugs and violence.
- [25:47]
Scott Weinberger
In fact, just a week earlier, the boys had gone to their mother to say that they no longer felt comfortable being around Bryce Rhodes. And for good reason.
- [25:57]
Detective Brian Peters
It came out that she said that the boys didn't want to hang out with Bryce Rhodes anymore because they had witnessed a murder and they were scared for their lives.
- [26:06]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
So according to their own mother, Larry and Maurice had witnessed a homicide and two weeks later, they were both dead.
- [26:14]
Scott Weinberger
Now let's remember that our episode started with another murder, that of 40 year old Christopher Jones. Could the double murder two teenage boys, be connected to the unsolved shooting? And more importantly, could the same man be behind all three murders? Detectives in Louisville were now in a sprint to find out before the killer had a chance to flee or strike again.
- [26:43]
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- [27:17]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
According to the mother of two teenage boys found stabbed to death behind an abandoned house house in Louisville, Kentucky, a man she knew who was described by some as a semi ex boyfriend, had become a dangerous influence in their lives.
- [27:31]
Scott Weinberger
The boys had even confessed to her that they had watched Bryce Rhodes kill a man two weeks earlier. And yet, still on the night before the bodies of Larry and Maurice were found, she witnessed her sons get into the car of the man they already knew to be a killer.
- [27:50]
Detective Brian Peters
So we established that initially there was a strong possibility that Rice Rhoads, AKA Rambo, had picked the boys up at their house.
- [27:59]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Despite their fear of what Rhodes was capable of, the boys did as they were told or were simply still pulled by the man's allure. Another indicator of just how strong his influence was over the two teenagers.
- [28:12]
Detective Brian Peters
But yet promise of new shoes or. Or food or whatever got him into that car.
- [28:17]
Scott Weinberger
It also meant that Rhodes might have been among the last people to see the two brothers alive. Which, regardless of his criminal background, would make him a strong person of interest in their murders.
- [28:30]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Creating a timeline of the boys whereabouts after they'd left home was now critical. Where did they go? Who had they seen? And what could have led up to their murders?
- [28:40]
Scott Weinberger
The first clue came from a phone call Made by maurice and larry's mother to one of her sons just hours before police notified her of their deaths.
- [28:50]
Detective Brian Peters
One of the other things that the mom said, and this threw us for a loop, she goes, I just called his phone, and anwon carter answered it and said they weren't available. And I told him to have them call me back. She goes, I haven't heard from him, and I've tried to call several times. So now we're thinking, who's anwon carter? Where does he fit in this game?
- [29:13]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Whoever he was, he was answering one of the murder victim's phones after the emmys. Estimated time of death.
- [29:20]
Detective Brian Peters
Having the phone call being answered by anwan after the boys have already been determined as dead. I mean, that's a big piece. And then it kind of sort of started moving a little bit faster. So we gotta find anwon, obviously. We gotta find anwon.
- [29:34]
Scott Weinberger
Investigators obtained a search warrant to ping maurice and larry's missing phone, which revealed that phone was located in a nearby housing development called park hill.
- [29:46]
Detective Brian Peters
So while I am over here dealing with this, we sent another group of detectives over to park hill to try and find anwon. And as soon as we see anwan go up into this apartment, we knock on the door. We get in there. You look to the left, There's a bedroom, and there's anwon shoving something underneath the mattress. We take anwan, we look under the mattress, and what's there? The cell phone. The cell phone is right there. Well, that changes that. Anwon's got to come with us.
- [30:17]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Being in possession of the phone belonging to a murder victim Was enough to land anwan carter in the hot seat as a prime suspect in their homicide. But it wasn't the only incriminating evidence that he had on him.
- [30:30]
Detective Brian Peters
Here's the crazier part. We get anwon down to the homicide office and put him in an interview room. And all of our interview rooms are obviously audio and video recorded. And I'm standing there, and I'm looking at anwan. Something is striking me. I'm like, gosh, something's not right here. I'm looking at this kid, and I'm looking at him. I'm looking at him, and I said, oh, my God, he's got maurice's shoes on. And they're like, are you sure? I'm like, unless he bought us the same pair of shoes. Those are the shoes that his mother said he had on.
- [31:06]
Scott Weinberger
Now, carter refused to cooperate with police and offered very little information.
- [31:12]
Detective Brian Peters
It was very, very. I don't know, nothing. I don't want. I don't know anything. You know, I don't know Bryce Rhodes. I don't know anything.
- [31:22]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
But Carter was also only 16 years old, and while legal to speak to him on his own, Aaron was conscious of his. Now, Aaron also had a gut feeling that he just might know a way to persuade Carter to talk.
- [31:35]
Detective Brian Peters
Normally, it's not beneficial as an investigator to have family come down to the station and talk to the person you're interviewing. I would have to say that one out of a hundred times that would be beneficial to you.
- [31:53]
Scott Weinberger
And I'll just say that in my experience, this is 100% true. In fact, calling a suspect's parents or family often has the exact opposite effect. You end up with the suspect usually getting and taking the advice to keep their mouths closed.
- [32:09]
Detective Brian Peters
But I talked to Anwan's mom and his sister, and I said, listen, he's got the cell phone and he's. I think he's wearing his shoes. And I think that that kind of sort of just flipped a switch in the sister's head. She said, let me talk to him. And I fought on that in my head. I was like, man, this could go one of two ways. I could look like a hero or a zero in this very moment. Because if she goes in there and says, don't say nothing. Where are we at? You know, at least right now he's talking. He may not be telling the truth, but he's talking. Well, I just decided. I told my boss, I said, listen, I don't know what it is called a gut feeling. I'm gonna let her talk to me.
- [32:48]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Carter's sister entered the interview room. The cameras and recording devices were turned off to give them privacy to speak. And for 45 minutes, which must have felt like an excruciatingly long time, detectives waited.
- [33:01]
Detective Brian Peters
And she comes out and she looks me dead in my face and she says, he's ready to tell the truth.
- [33:07]
Scott Weinberger
Detective Tonelli then had the self awareness to not just rush back in. His first interaction with Carter had been unproductive, even bordering on combative. So with that in mind, he decided to do something that is pretty rare in most homicide units. He took a step back and let another detective walk in the room and take the lead.
- [33:30]
Detective Brian Peters
A wise man once told me, a wise investigator. To this day, I live by it. The investigator looked at me. He says, aaron, sometimes in life, ego's not your amigo, so you gotta step back and release the reins.
- [33:45]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
The movies like to call this the good cop, bad cop routine, but really, it entails having the wisdom to know what tact to use at what times and with who.
- [33:54]
Detective Brian Peters
There's several different techniques. You know, sometimes you want to be that adversary. The table's in the middle. He's here, you're here. And it's that adversarial kind of thing. And then there's that situation where you want to move that chair so you're a little closer and you're a little more intimate. Hey, we're going to have a conversation, just you and me. And that's when Anwon told his initial truth to what happened. And I gotta be honest with you, gobsmacked, for lack of a better word, just absolutely gobsmacked.
- [34:29]
Scott Weinberger
Carter began not with a description of Maurice and Larry's murder, but with the event that led up to it two weeks earlier.
- [34:37]
Detective Brian Peters
He tells John, well, we killed this guy in the West End. Us, Jacori, Maurice, Larry, and Bryce, went hunting, found this guy, killed him. Bryce was scared that the boys were gonna tell people because they were not comfortable with it, and they told their mom. Well, as soon as that happened, as soon as he mentioned that, I was like, well, who the heck did they kill in the West End? John was like, what'd the guy look like? Well, he had dreads. I said, I didn't make a phone call. Brian, you're gonna want to get in here, man. I think I found the guys that killed Christopher Jones.
- [35:18]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
According to Carter, in early May 2016, Rhoades and four teenagers, Antoine Carter, Jacori, Taylor, Maurice, and Larry, were hanging out when Rhodes told the others he knew of a person with, quote, some money on his head, and that he just needed a gun and they could all share in the score.
- [35:36]
Detective Brian Peters
So Bryce Rhodes made up this big fantasy that he was some big gangster, and he had these boys convinced that he knew of a guy that had a $10,000 bounty on his head, and they just had to go find him and kill him and they'd get that money.
- [35:52]
Scott Weinberger
Rhodes had been grooming these young men for months, romanticizing crime and violence. And for the most part, it had been all talk until now.
- [36:03]
Detective Brian Peters
Now, if you're a teenage boy and you grew up in that environment and the guy that you look at as the pinnacle of your gangster lifestyle is telling you that there's a guy that's got a $10,000 bounty and you're going to get a slice of the pie. These boys are just in it for the ride, right?
- [36:24]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
According to Carter, he got his hands on a gun and gave them to Rhodes. And on the night of the intended hit, the group left Rhodes apartment in two cars.
- [36:33]
Detective Brian Peters
Well, that night, Anwan had stole a truck. Maurice and Larry, Bryce and Jacori were in the car. And they went looking for a guy that only Bryce knew what he looked like.
- [36:44]
Scott Weinberger
Rhodes, armed with a gun, sat in the back seat beside Corey Taylor. Morris was driving, and Larry was in the passenger seat next to his brother Anwan. Carlos Carter followed behind in a stolen truck.
- [36:55]
Detective Brian Peters
And they're driving all over the city looking for this guy. That Bryce is the only one that knows what he looks like. While here comes walking Chris Jones. And Bryce says, that's him, that's him. The window comes down, the shots ring out. And one was like, I didn't know what to do. I accelerated, and he ran over Chris Jones.
- [37:16]
Scott Weinberger
Christopher Jones was shot twice, both bullets lodging in his chest. As both cars sped away. Carter admitted to striking Jones with the stolen truck and running him over as both cars fled the scene.
- [37:31]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
According to Carter's statement, Rhodes then fired the gun again, this time into an unknown person's residence a few houses down. Carter then followed the others back to Larry and Maurice's mother's house. The teenage boys were dropped off with the promise of their share of the bounty and a threat from Rhodes to not say a word. And you know, Scott, like, I just feel like people are like, wait, what just happened here? And so I just want to talk about it for a second. Cause it's complicated, right? When I heard Aaron talking, like, I thought to myself, oh, no, those boys now were potential accomplices to the murder of Christopher Jones. Because, remember, Maurice is driving the car. He's there during the crime and when they fled. And he may not have realized it, but that makes him arrestable for the crime. Now, there's a defense of threats or possible coercion by Rhodes. And we all have already said that this guy was likely using these boys all along. And maybe. But that's something that would have had to play out in court. But then we have Larry, the younger brother, and that one, it's definitely tougher, right? Because from the account that we have, he could have been considered merely present. And that is not a crime under the law. But we were also told that beforehand that they were told like, hey, if you guys come and help, you'll all get some money. And maybe they said yes and never expected any actual violence to happen. So who knows where this all would have led landed had the boys lived. It is complicated and complex to say the least.
- [38:54]
Scott Weinberger
And I'll just Add uncomfortable to that, because it's just not clean, right? You have a car full of kids driving around the city looking for someone they can't even identify themselves. You know, one person says, that's him, and then nobody questions it. You know, the window comes down, shots are fired, and then you've got another kid behind the wheel of a stolen truck who panics and then runs him over. You know, that is just not one decision. That's a chain of decisions, and that's what makes it very complicated.
- [39:22]
Detective Brian Peters
Obviously, two weeks go by and there's no money. There's no money. Nobody got paid.
- [39:28]
Scott Weinberger
Which makes you wonder, was Rhodes just ripping these young kids off, or was the story about the hit all made up to begin with?
- [39:37]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Now, because if there was a hit, then this was actually an all the more tragic story of mistaken identity because police knew from Christopher Jones background that he had no reason to be targeted or have any. I mean, if anyone should ever have such a thing, right? But if there wasn't really a hit at all, then that points to something potentially even scarier. That Rhodes had just picked a random, innocent stranger to kill for no reason at all.
- [40:05]
Scott Weinberger
Now, we can't put ourselves in their head, right? But is there a possibility that this is what started to dawn on Larry and Maurice?
- [40:14]
Detective Brian Peters
And then you get the news, they're putting pieces together, and I think that's what scared Larry, Maurice. That level of violence is something that none of these four kids have ever experienced. They've seen violence, they grew up in violence, but they haven't seen that level of violence. And that's kind of sort of what threw them.
- [40:33]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
And so after all this, Maurice and Larry were absolutely shaken, right? I mean, they told this to their mom. And according to Anwon Carter, they let it slip that they had told their mother about what they had witnessed. And that proved to be the fatal mistake.
- [40:46]
Scott Weinberger
On May 24, 2016, two weeks after Christopher Jones was murdered, Rhodes lured Maurice and Larry to his apartment.
- [40:56]
Detective Brian Peters
Bryce Rhodes is calling Anwan and Jacori and saying, hey, guys, I'm having a party at my house. Come on by, you know, let's hang out.
- [41:04]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
According to Carter, he and a cousin were tasked to pick up the boys in Rhodes car. He knew Rhodes intended to confront them about keeping their mouth shut about the murder, but he was instructed to pretend like nothing was wrong.
- [41:16]
Detective Brian Peters
Anwan's cousin picks them up and starts driving around the city. They get this phone call from Bryce, and he's like, hey, man, take us over to Bryce Rhodes house, over to Rambo's house. And he's like, man, you don't want
- [41:29]
Scott Weinberger
to go over there.
- [41:29]
Detective Brian Peters
And they're like, no, no, no, no, he's having a party, there's girls, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and he's like, okay. And he drops off and wanted Jacori at ramp. So now all the pieces are at Rambo's house.
- [41:43]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Little did the teens know they had walked into a deadly trap.
- [41:56]
Scott Weinberger
On May 21, 2016, two brothers, 16 year old Maurice Gordon and 14 year old Larry Ordway, walked into the home of Bryce Rambo Rhodes for what they thought was a party.
- [42:11]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Instead, Rhodes, Anwon Carter and Jaquory Taylor, the other accomplices in the murder of Christopher Jones, confronted the two young teens about keeping silent about their roles in the murder.
- [42:23]
Detective Brian Peters
And Jacori and Anwan both say that there is some tension in the room. They could feel it. And Jacori and Maurice get into it. A physical altercation.
- [42:36]
Scott Weinberger
According to Carter, Maurice pulled a knife that he brought from his home to defend himself.
- [42:42]
Detective Brian Peters
We don't know where that knife is, we don't know if that was a murder weapon or not, but we know that, that that knife was there. But they got into it. When Maurice pulled the knife, Rambo stepped in and grabbed the knife and threw it and, and that's when this thing started happening.
- [43:00]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
The younger teens were quickly overpowered.
- [43:04]
Detective Brian Peters
They ended up tying the two boys up using belts and stuff they had around the house and stuffing a sock in their mouth and gagging them and then putting a hood over their heads like a pillowcase. And they took one brother and they put him in the bathroom. Rambo is basically laying it out for him, giving him the lecture. He's saying, you know, you got to pay your bucks, you got to pay your dues. You know, you ran your mouth and now you got to pay for it. Cory and Anwater, 16 and 17 years old, and Rambo's 25 and they want to impress Rambo. So I think that they're, they're thinking, oh, they're going to get beat up. So Rambo tells them, you know, start hitting him, tells Jecory, start hitting him. So he starts punching him, punching him, punching him, and you know, the boys in there obviously making noises, grunting, whatever, and then Rambo picks up the knife and stabs him several times.
- [44:08]
Scott Weinberger
But Rhodes had a darker plan and we want to warn our listeners. What follows is graphic details of a violent assault which could be triggering for some.
- [44:19]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Rhodes continued stabbing until the 16 year old Maurice was barely breathing. But he wasn't done.
- [44:26]
Detective Brian Peters
He looks at Jacori, hands a knife and says, you're in it now. Stab him.
- [44:32]
Scott Weinberger
And he did. The three men took turns stabbing the teenager over and over. All the while, Maurice's younger brother Larry was forced to listen to the sounds of his brother's murder from the bathroom.
- [44:47]
Detective Brian Peters
The idea that you're listening to your brother get killed knowing that you're next, knowing that there's nothing you can do.
- [44:56]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
The medical examiner concluded that Maurice likely died from his wounds while still tied to the chair.
- [45:02]
Detective Brian Peters
And once they stabbed him several times, they just pushed him to the side of the room, you know, just pushed him over there and brought out the other brother and basically went through the same thing.
- [45:15]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
And I really feel like we just need to take a pause right here, like, let this sink in, you know, take a breath. Because the violence that was described was only given to you to truly understand what happened. But it is devastatingly brutal nonetheless.
- [45:29]
Scott Weinberger
This is really another level Anasega of evil. It really is. Bryce Rhodes, Jacori Taylor and Anwan Carter had lured Maurice and Larry to what they believed was a party and then set upon them like a pack of wild dogs. These murders were intentional, they were vicious, and they were absolutely completely premeditated.
- [45:54]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
But everything they did after the murders was decidedly less.
- [45:58]
Detective Brian Peters
So Rambo decides, we gotta clean this place up. So he throws the two boys in a basket, like a laundry basket, each covers them up with blankets and stuff like that. And the boys and Rambo and Tyreen carry the boys out to Rambo's car and they load him up inside the car. And he looks at Jacori and Anwan and says, you guys stay here and start cleaning. We're going to get rid of these Larry and Maurice.
- [46:26]
Scott Weinberger
Maurice and Larry's bodies were loaded into Rhodes blue Mazda, which is the same car he used in the drive by shooting of Christopher Jones. Then they were driven to a place Rhodes knew behind an abandoned house.
- [46:41]
Detective Brian Peters
That is when Bryce and Tyrine take the boys, take them to that house, that abandoned house, lay them out, try to set them on fire, and they take off. Well, you got a problem now, right? You've got baskets that carried bloody kids in it, you got blankets that have bloody kids in it. And then when you get back to the house, you got more bloody stuff.
- [47:07]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
So the three men drove to a nearby store to purchase cleaning supplies and then returned to the scene of the crime.
- [47:13]
Detective Brian Peters
They get back to Bryce Rhodes house and the boys say that Bryce starts cleaning with them. Once they get where he Feels it's clean enough, they got to get rid of pillows, they got to get rid of rags, all this bloody stuff they throw in his car. And they take the car.
- [47:32]
Scott Weinberger
According to Carter, Rhodes then dumped the bloody items into a nearby dumpster and set the dumpster on fire in an attempt to destroy the evidence.
- [47:43]
Detective Brian Peters
When we asked him what dumpster, wouldn't that be nice to have? And they're like, well, I don't know, just dumped it in a dumpster and set it on fire. So Brian Peters and Matt Metzler pulled all the calls for service in the Louisville area for fire dumpsters. And they went around to every single one of them individually.
- [48:08]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
And eventually their search paid off, leading them to a dumpster in a nearby condominium complex.
- [48:15]
Detective Brian Peters
So they get there, they get to this one dumpster in this condo complex, right? And they're looking at the dumpster and they're looking at it, and they're looking at it and they're like, oh my God, that looks like a pillow. That looks like blood. So out comes the Tyvek suits and they call the crime scene unit and they're dumpster diving for a good part of that day, the whole entire day. And they pull out unbelievable amounts of DNA evidence. Shoes, clothing, pillows that match the pillows inside the condo.
- [48:53]
Scott Weinberger
In addition to the items recovered from the dumpster, investigators were able to recover another critical piece of evidence. Video from the complex showing Bryce Rhodes car arriving at the dumpster and then leaving minutes later.
- [49:08]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Corroboration that what Anwon Carter and likely Jacori Taylor were telling the police was most likely the truth. But there was one more piece of information they needed from them. Where to find Bryce Rhodes.
- [49:22]
Detective Brian Peters
So as soon as we get that information, we're sending detectives out to the house. And as soon as detective Vance and another detective show up at that condo, which is a gated condo community, guess who's pulling out. Bryce Rhodes. So detour. Other detectives go to the condo, they start following Bryce, because now we got it. We can't lose our main suspect.
- [49:47]
Scott Weinberger
Louisville Police called the U.S. marshals to assist. And together, Rhodes was captured at a local gas station without incident.
- [49:57]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
He was brought to the homicide office where Aaron prepared himself to face off against someone he assumed would be a combative, possibly intimidating character. But. But that was not the case.
- [50:08]
Detective Brian Peters
But when I walked in on Bryce, nope, that's a small man. That is a weak, weak man. And that's why he hung out with 17 year old kids at the age of 25. Because he could manipulate him. And by manipulating him made himself feel stronger.
- [50:27]
Scott Weinberger
Now, during questioning, Rhodes admitted he knew the boys, but denied having anything to do with were their murderers.
- [50:34]
Detective Brian Peters
I saw him around playing ball. Did you know their mom? Yeah, a little bit. You know, we hung out, didn't really give us anything. Thought he was the smartest guy in the room.
- [50:42]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
But detectives made it clear that his accomplices had already cooperated with police and they already knew about his role in the double murder.
- [50:50]
Detective Brian Peters
He shut down right there and he's like, I'm done.
- [50:53]
Scott Weinberger
But detectives were just getting started.
- [50:56]
Detective Brian Peters
While Bryce is in our custody, the search warrant gets executed at his condo. That's where pieces of the puzzle put forth that were amazing. The fact that you could smell the bleach, it hit you in the face. The fact that we located his car missing the back seat, all these pieces just started coming together. And then, you know, once you put the Blue Star inside that condo, it glowed like an apparition. I mean, it was like, whoa.
- [51:34]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Incredibly, this investigation into the murders of Maurice Gordon and Larry Ordway had taken just four days, during which time they had also solved the murder of Christopher Jones.
- [51:45]
Detective Brian Peters
It just started falling into place and pieces started coming together in such a record speed. 4 days. 4 days of non stop. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Here's the answers, here's the situation. Yeah, you worked for it, you took some risks, but boy, the rewards were great.
- [52:08]
Scott Weinberger
In July of 2016, a grand jury indicted Rhodes on three counts of capital murder, tampering with physical evidence and and two counts of abuse of a corpse. The commonwealth sought the death penalty. Rhodes filed a motion to exclude death due to his claims of intellectual disability and severe mental illness. After an evidentiary hearing, the trial court granted that motion.
- [52:35]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Carter and Taylor were also charged with three counts of murder and tampering with physical evidence before later entering plea agreements in exchange for their dramatic testimony against Rhodes, who glared menacingly at them from the defense table.
- [52:51]
Detective Brian Peters
My fellow investigator Brian, we kind of sort of felt the vibe in the courtroom that something was going to happen.
- [52:58]
Scott Weinberger
Prosecutors laid out the evidence and described Rhodes as cruel and calculating. Rhodes responded with frequent outbursts and confrontations with his own lawyers, the prosecutors, and worst of all, attempts to taunt and intimidate the mother of his two victims.
- [53:17]
Detective Brian Peters
He's about showmanship and trying to get that reaction from not just the public, but from the mom specifically because he knew it would draw attention.
- [53:26]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
The defense challenged the credibility of Carter and Taylor, arguing that they had incentive to shift blame due to their plea agreements. But after an eight day trial, their testimony as well as the forensic evidence backing it up, convinced the jury who found Bryce Rhodes guilty.
- [53:44]
Detective Brian Peters
So Bryce Rhodes made up this big fantasy that he was some big gangster. I think he thinks that he's built himself up in his mind to be this high speed, low drag gang banger that can just, you know, snap his fingers.
- [53:58]
Scott Weinberger
But the truth bore out that he was a small man, a weak man that surrounded himself with impressionable children to bolster his own ego and do his own bidding.
- [54:11]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Rhodes was eventually sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Following an appeal, the Louisville Supreme Court upheld his life sentence.
- [54:21]
Detective Brian Peters
I was in the military prior to this. I've been around death and destruction for most of my career. I never shied away from anything as far as just doing the hard things. But I will say this, and you're probably the first person I've ever admitted this to, because it's something that gets lost in our profession. This is the only case that I've ever had that I still see the visions of the kids. So I would have to say that this is the first case where it hasn't gone away. That the dreams are still there, the visions are still there, and the anxiety of, did I do everything in my power to get this evil away from the world?
- [55:06]
Scott Weinberger
There are cases that stay with you. Not because of the violence, though this case has plenty of that, but because of what they expose about human nature. Bryce Rhodes looked at other human beings and saw leverage. Christopher Jones was a means to collect. Maurice and Larry were loose ends. That's how he processed people. What makes this case different isn't just the brutality. It's the deliberateness. A 40 year old man walks down the street and gets killed, and instead of being the end of it, it becomes the beginning. Two boys, brothers, get summoned to a house and never come home because one of them called his mother. That's not chaos, that's calculation. And when you strip it all the way down, this was what it was really about. Not gang violence, not street crime. It was about one man who decided that the other people's lives were his to manage, including the lives of children he recruited, corrupted, and then eliminated when they became inconvenient. Three people are gone. A son grew up without a father. A grandmother buried her two grandsons, and justice did come. But it took seven years to get there. And for the families, that wait was its own kind of sentence.
- [56:27]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Murder is complicated. It's deep. In some cases, actually boggle the mind. This is one of them. It's complex. Including Maurice's and Larry's relationship with Rhodes and presence and possible involvement in Christopher Jones's death. But that's something police would have had to sort out if the teens had survived. But they didn't. Two impressionable boys, 14 and 16, likely looking up to the older man who had shown interest in their lives. They followed him. And even when they started to be scared of him, remember they admitted that to their mom, but they still continued to follow his prompts. They were lured to his home where they were ambushed. Rhodes likely made sure Antwan and Jacari Taylor also participated to make sure that they wouldn't talk about what he'd done. But let's remember Maurice and Larry as the 14 and 16 year olds that they were. They will never have the chance to figure out life, to live their lives because of the brutality of Bryce Rhodes and Christopher Jones, a man taking a walk when he was executed just because they that's what Rhodes wanted to do. Despicable. And no matter how many years I'm involved in this criminal justice world, which is going on three decades by now, I will never understand how some people can do things like this to other human beings. Tune in next week for another new episode of Homicide360.
- [57:57]
Scott Weinberger
Homicide360 is created and produced by Forsetti Media and Weinberger Media.
- [58:04]
Anna Sega Nicolasi
Supervising producer is Walker Lamond. Managing editor is Kate Mack. Sabrina Sarai is production manager. Edited by Ali Sierra and Phil Jean Grande Original theme music by Trey Anderson
- [58:25]
Sponsor Announcer
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