Brice Rhodes set to go on trial in notorious Louisville triple-murder case
More than seven years after his arrest, Brice "Rambo" Rhodes' trial on triple-homicide charges – including the stabbing of two teenage brothers – begins Monday.
The brothers – honor student Larry Ordway, 14, and his half-brother Maurice "Reece" Gordon, 16 – looked up to the then 25-year-old Rhodes with the belief that the amateur rapper could make them famous, according to the boys' relatives.
In late May 2016, the teenagers were brutally beaten and stabbed to death. Their bodies were found in an abandoned house, 10 miles from the home they shared with their mother.
Police have alleged in court records that the brothers were killed because they witnessed Rhodes kill 40-year-old Christopher Jones weeks earlier. Rhodes is also charged with Jones' murder.
Rhodes faces a slew of other charges related to his subsequent behavior in jail and in court, which include threatening to kill others and an attempted escape.
Who is Brice Rhodes?
Before he was arrested in the murders, Rhodes was an obscure local rapper with videos referencing drug dealing and a rant that if “[racial slur] play with me, I’m gonna leave his [expletive] missing,” followed by the sound of a gunshot.
Some of his music videos featured friends, including one with Ordway and Gordon holding guns.
Besides buying them food and clothes, Rhodes would drive the brothers around.
On May 4, 2016, the teens were in a car with Rhodes when the older man spotted Jones. Police alleged Rhodes jumped out of the car and shot Jones in the street — quickly turning the brothers' admiration of Rhodes into fear. Police said another teenager who said he was also present and later involved in the boys' stabbing deaths told them Rhodes mistook Jones for someone who was the target of a contract killing.
At the time of the killings, Rhodes was on probation for domestic assault for incidents in 2013 and 2014, according to court records.
The stabbings of Larry Ordway and Maurice Gordon
A little over two weeks after Jones' death, Ordway and Gordon left their home in Beechmont on the evening of May 21, 2016. A day later, their bodies were found in the backyard of an abandoned house.
According to Louisville Metro Police, the boys had been beaten and stabbed to death. Evidence also suggested their killers attempted to burn their bodies, police said.
At a vigil held soon after the discovery of their bodies, family members expressed intense grief and recalled their near future plans to celebrate the boys' graduations from middle school.
"They were boys," their great uncle, Duane Crutcher, told The Courier Journal in 2016. "They'll never drive a car, go to the prom. It hurts."
Shortly after the bodies were recovered, homicide detectives arrested two teens - Anjuan Carter and Jacorey "Corey" Taylor - in connection to the investigation. They arrested Rhodes on May 24, two days after the bodies were found, on an outstanding warrant in a domestic abuse case while gathering evidence in the murder case.
Carter, who was 15 at the time of the killings, told police he was there the night of May 21, where an argument quickly turned deadly.
Carter told poice he, Rhodes and the then-17-year-old Taylor were hanging out with the brothers in a Clifton Heights apartment late that night. Investigators said they found a plethora of evidence, including blood, after searching the apartment, despite it having been cleaned with bleach.
That night, Gordon got into a fight with Taylor and pulled out a large knife, according to what Carter told police. But Rhodes snatched the weapon from Gordon and smacked him with it, the records show.
Rhodes then tied up the brothers, briefly trapping Ordway in a bathroom while he forced a crying Gordon to his knees, according to Carter.
As Taylor and Carter watched, Rhodes stuffed a rag into Gordon's mouth and pulled a ski mask down over his head. After laying a quilt down on the living room’s carpet, Rhodes then "stabbed him, repeatedly,” Carter said in the interview with police.
The 14-year-old Ordway was then brought out, his face covered and mouth gagged, Carter told investigators in a video interview included in court records. He said he and Taylor were forced to help Rhodes stab the two brothers and clean up the scene.
A medical examiner found Gordon had been stabbed more than a dozen times and Ordway more than 20.
Who else has been charged with the teens' murders?
Three people have pleaded guilty in connection to the fatal stabbing deaths.
Carter pleaded guilty in late 2016 to facilitation to murder charges and tampering with evidence.
Carter was ordered to remain at a Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice facility until he turned 18, at which time a judge could have ordered him to serve the remainder of a recommended 10-year sentence or put him on probation for five years. In 2019, Carter was granted probation. Per his plea agreement, if Carter were to break the law while on probation, he would face a recommended 20-year sentence.
In 2021, motions were filed to revoke Carter's probation for violations.
The state of Kentucky issued a bench warrant for his arrest in late 2022. According to court records, Carter was in custody in Florida following a conviction and is not set to be released until 2024.
Taylor pleaded guilty in 2018 to three counts of facilitation to murder, amended from murder, and tampering with evidence, all Class D felonies. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
As part of their deals with prosecutors, Carter and Taylor agreed to testify against Rhodes.
Another defendant, Tieren Coleman, pleaded guilty in 2017 to amended charges of facilitation to murder for the deaths of the two brothers as well as tampering with evidence and two counts of abuse of a corpse. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Timeline of Rhodes' outbursts since arrest: spitting, jail letter threats to 'rats'
Since Rhodes was arrested, he has garnered a slate of other charges related to his behavior in Louisville Metro Corrections and court. Some of these incidents include:
May 2016: Rhodes spat on and threatened his attorney. Brendan McLeod, who no longer represents Rhodes, had been explaining to Rhodes that he couldn't remain on the case because of a conflict – his friendship with the victims' grandfather – while Rhodes was in a holding cell. Rhodes then spat on him. Once inside the courtroom, Rhodes shouted at McLeod, "You're a coward, and I'll see you when I get out."
August 2016: Rhodes knocked an inmate to the floor on Aug. 31 and threatened "to kill the victim like he did the others," according to the arrest warrant. The victim suffered a knot to the back of the head, a laceration on his forehead and a sore neck. The incident was captured on video surveillance.
September 2016: Rhodes spat on another inmate on Sept. 15 at Metro Corrections. The spitting incident was also captured on the jail's video surveillance.
September 2016: Rhodes was charged with threatening to kill a judge and her family. During a court appearance, due to Rhodes' erratic behavior, deputies strapped him by his wrists and ankles in a restraint chair and covered his mouth with a spit mask before wheeling the chair into court. During the hearing, he shouted at the judge, "What, you don't think that we can't find out where you live at?"
October 2016: Rhodes was accused of ripping an inmate-observation document during an Oct. 19 incident in the day room of Metro Corrections. He is said to have taken a broken broom handle and swung it at a glass window, trying to break the glass toward an officer. He told the officer he wanted her to come inside and that he was going to kill her, according to the citation charging him with terroristic threatening. Five days later, Rhodes was also accused of throwing urine through the crack of his cell door, striking an officer in his head, neck and ear.
January 2017: A Metro Corrections officer noticed a man-made hole under cinder blocks in Rhodes' cell on Jan. 5. Officers say as they tried to confiscate the metal object, Rhodes grabbed it and flushed it down the toilet. He was charged with first-degree criminal mischief, second-degree escape and tampering with physical evidence ‒ all felonies.
Unspecified date, 2017: According to court records, Rhodes was discovered to have sent jailhouse notes to Jacorey Taylor, threatening him to not testify against him. The phrase “RATS GET EXPOSED” was allegedly written across the top of a police statement transcript, as well as a handwritten letter, sent to Taylor. The letter was slipped to Taylor sometime in 2017 while both were being held at Metro Corrections. Rhodes told Taylor he wanted him to recant his statement to police and not take a plea deal. He provided Taylor with a letter, to copy in his own handwriting, which listed numerous reasons that Taylor could use to take back the statement he made to police.
More: Brice Rhodes: An obscure rapper became one of Louisville's most notorious murder suspects
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville murder case: Brice Rhodes' triple-murder trial set to begin
