COLUMBUS, Ohio — A federal grand jury has charged five Columbus men in connection with a drug case that included the murders of three people.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, the deaths were part of an alleged narcotics conspiracy in 2018 to rob a local marijuana dealer of drugs and cash in his residence.
Authorities say the crime resulted in the shooting death of another resident in the home and two others who had knowledge of the first murder.
According to court documents, 40-year-old Larry Williams Jr., 29-year-old Kyle Castle, 30-year-old Jesse Climer, 23-year-old Brian Muncy and 34-year-old Durone Ellis were indicted on various charges.
Williams Jr., Climer and Muncy are currently in custody while Castle is listed as a fugitive.
On June 27, 2018, the defendants allegedly robbed at gunpoint a residence on E.N. Broadway in Columbus to steal drugs and profit from the sale of those drugs.
The indictment details Williams allegedly killed 23-year-old Connor Reynolds during the armed robbery and Castle and Climer were present.
In August 2018, Williams then allegedly murdered 52-year-old Henry Watson to prevent him from providing information regarding Reynold’s murder. Williams is then killed 48-year-old Tera Pennington to prevent her from serving as a witness to the previous crimes.
Williams allegedly told others to destroy a firearm and dispose of evidence from the crime scene on Stevens Ave. with bleach and other chemicals. He also directed others to dismember and remove the bodies from the scene.
The bodies of Watson and Pennington were found in January 2021 in a home on Sullivant Avenue dismembered, buried in the basement and covered in concrete.
The indictment details that Williams and others used the Stevens Ave. residence to sell and allow people to use narcotics.
Williams could potentially face the death penalty in this case, according to the department of justice.
Four additional defendants – Patrick Foster, Eric Linley, Phillip Trent and Charles Koon – were charged in February with their involvement with moving, dismembering, relocating and then burying the bodies of Watson and Pennington.
Linley, Trent and Koon allegedly worked under the direction of Foster. Those three have pleaded guilty to being accessories after the murder and Foster’s case remains pending.
Four other defendants – Stephanie S. Bouphavong, Lashawn L. White, Jeffrey Mason Ford and Richard Rodgers – have been charged with and pleaded guilty to related narcotics crimes.
If you have information on Kyle Castle’s whereabouts, please contact Homeland Security Investigations through the tip line at 1-866-DHS-2423.
