One of two suspects in a shocking triple murder on a Georgia golf course in 2021 will appear in court on Wednesday, when the district attorney expects to confirm his intent to seek the death penalty.
Pinetree Country Club golf pro Gene Siller was found dead on that golf course’s 10th hole on July 3, 2021, along with two other men shot to death in the bed of a white pickup truck teetering on the bank of a sand trap.
The two men were identified as Henry Valdez, 46, and Paul Pierson, 76. The truck belonged to Pierson, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Investigators said Siller was not targeted in the shooting but was killed when he went out to the course to investigate the truck.
Police later that night arrested Bryan Anthony Rhoden on a DUI but hadn’t connected him with the murders. When they did, they called him into the police station — he’d been released on bond — to pick up his belongings, and arrested him for the murders. He was charged with three counts of murder, three counts of aggravated assault, and two counts of kidnapping.
Later last year, police issued a warrant for the arrest of Justin Caleb Pruitt as Rhoden’s accomplice, WAGA reports. Both men were indicted in Cobb County in May — Rhoden on three counts of malice murder and seven counts of felony murder. He also faces two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, three counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and tampering with evidence and Pruitt on two counts each of felony murder and kidnapping with bodily injury.
The indictment also charged Taylor Nicole Cameron with attempt to commit tampering with evidence. According to the indictment, Rhoden asked her “to pick up the firearm so as to avoid apprehension and otherwise obstruct the prosecution of himself.”
The indictment says Pruitt and Rhoden abducted Valdez and Pierson, bound them “with duct tape,” and drove them “in the bed of a pickup truck to the Pinetree Country Club. Rhoden shot the men, including Siller, the indictment says.
Rhoden — the aspiring rapper expected in court Wednesday — wrote on his Instagram account in June that the charges against him are “blatant and utter attempts to assassinate, defamate, and deplete my character, WAGA said.
His post says the accusations against him are quote “blatant and utter attempts to assassinate, defamate, and deplete my character” and asked people to “keep an open mind as to what led to the unfortunate turn of events and who is responsible.”
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[Featured image: Bryan Rhoden/Cobb County Adult Detention Center]
