COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A man facing murder charges for the killing of three people at a Cobb County country club back in 2021 pleaded guilty in court on Friday morning.
Bryan Rhoden was given three consecutive life sentences in prison, with possible additional time, for the shootings that killed Gene Siller, Henry Valdez and Paul Pierson at the Pinetree Country Club golf course in July 2021.
At one point, prosecutors had signaled they would seek the death penalty in this case.
Rhoden pleaded guilty to at least 16 of the 17 charges he had faced.
Siller, the club's golf pro, was shot to death near the 10th hole when Cobb County Police say he stumbled upon the crime already in progress. They said he was not targeted but was shot because he was witnessing the crime. Police later found Valdez and Pierson tied up and shot to death in the bed of a pickup truck on the green.
Some of their family members spoke in court Friday.
"It feels impossible to translate that debilitating sadness and agony feeling into words because the truth is, there are no words," said Gene Siller's wife, Ashley.
She addressed Rhoden directly as she tried to describe the agonizing pain of losing her husband.
"Time heals hearts, but broken hearts don't ever fully recover from something like this," she said.
Paul Pierson's wife, Grace Bartlome, tearfully described how the tragedy has impacted her family.
"We are forever altered and our lives are not the same, nor will they ever be, for nothing will ever bring back my precious husband's life," she said.
Rhoden was charged with three counts of malice murder, five counts of felony murder, two counts of kidnapping with bodily injury, three counts of aggravated assault and an additional two less serious charges.
He originally pleaded not guilty in the case in 2022.
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