Jamiesfeast – The man from Georgia who killed three individuals at an upscale golf course in 2021 has reached a plea agreement with the prosecutors. This deal spares him from the possibility of facing the death penalty in a trial that was scheduled to begin later this year.
Bryan Rhoden, a 25-year-old man, has pleaded guilty to 17 felony charges. These charges include murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault. As a result of his guilty plea, he has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“The plea deal offered by Mr. Rhoden has been accepted by both the families and the state, resulting in the withdrawal of our request for the death penalty,” revealed Cobb County District Attorney Flynn Broady in a phone call with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Broady added, “He has pleaded guilty to all charges mentioned in the indictment.”
The community at the Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw, Georgia, an exurb of Atlanta, was deeply shaken by the tragic deaths of Paul Pierson, Henry Valdez, and Gene Siller.
Police found the bodies of Pierson, 76, and Valdez, 46, in the bed of a pickup truck that was stopped near the 10th hole on the golf course. Their hands, legs, and mouths were tied together. The body of Siller, a golf pro at the club who was 46 years old, was also found near the truck. A gunshot hit him in the head.
Rhoden was named as a suspect in the horrible crime, and four days after the murders, police pulled over his black Maserati and arrested him for a number of crimes, including DUI. He was let out of jail for a short time, but he was arrested again a few days later after new proof linked him to the killings.
Someone who knows Pierson and Valdez and spoke to the Journal-Constitution said that his friends knew Rhoden through the “cannabis trade.” He told Guerrero that Valdez was a broker who worked with Rhoden and a “very small circle of people he trusted.”
Still, it’s not clear what made Rhoden lose it.
Police said that Rhoden, Pierson, and Valdez all knew each other, but Siller was unknown to all three. They said that Siller was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time and was killed because he saw Pierson and Valdez get killed.
Families say Siller died, leaving behind a wife and two young kids.
Prior to the triple murder, Rhoden had been arrested for other dangerous crimes. His record shows that he was arrested before for reportedly getting into a shootout over a failed drug deal at Georgia State University, where he was a student.
Also in 2020, Rhoden was arrested when Atlanta airport police took nearly $20,000 from him as he got on a trip to Los Angeles because they thought it was drug money. He was never said to have done anything wrong. In 2020, he was arrested again for taking police on a high-speed chase in Indiana, where he was said to have reached speeds of up to 150 mph.