Anjuan Carter was 15 years old when he took part in the 2016 Louisville murders orchestrated by Brice Rhodes. He pleaded guilty to three counts of criminal facilitation to murder and one count of tampering with physical evidence, cooperated with prosecutors, and testified against Rhodes at the 2023 trial that ended in three consecutive life sentences without parole. Carter served time in juvenile detention and briefly in adult prison before being released on probation in June 2019. He was later incarcerated in Florida on unrelated burglary charges.
His Role in the 2016 Killings
Carter was in the passenger seat of the car on May 4, 2016, when Rhodes shot 40-year-old Christopher Jones on South 41st Street in Louisville’s Chickasaw neighborhood. Rhodes believed Jones had placed a bounty on him.1WDRB. Prosecutor Tells Jury Brice Rhodes Was Calculating and Cruel as His Triple Murder Trial Begins Also in the car were 16-year-old Maurice Gordon, who was driving, and 14-year-old Larry Ordway.
Weeks later, prosecutors said, Rhodes became worried the two brothers were talking to family about the Jones shooting. According to Carter’s later testimony, Rhodes called a vote among five associates on whether Gordon and Ordway should live. Carter said he was the only one who voted to spare them.2Courier-Journal. Brice Rhodes Wanted Vote on Killing Brothers, Witnesses Say Rhodes then directed the group to stab the brothers at his apartment.3Court TV. KY v. Brice Rhodes: Witness to Murder Trial The bodies were loaded into a bin, driven in Rhodes’s Mazda to an abandoned house on River Park Drive, and set on fire. They were found on May 22, 2016.4WAVE3. Brice Rhodes Co-Defendant Testifies in Triple Murder Trial Carter told the jury he stayed behind to clean up the scene.5WDRB. Louisville Jury Finds Brice Rhodes Guilty on All Counts in 2016 Triple Murder Case
The Plea Deal
Carter was initially charged with three counts of murder, which carried a potential life sentence. In November 2016, at 15, he agreed to a plea deal that reduced the murder counts to three counts of criminal facilitation to murder, each carrying a maximum five-year penalty, along with one count of tampering with physical evidence, a Class D felony.6Courier-Journal. Teen in Brice Rhodes Case Takes Plea Deal
The agreement required him to testify truthfully against Rhodes and co-defendants Jacorey Taylor and Tieren Coleman. If a judge later found he had lied or refused to testify, prosecutors could withdraw the deal and he would face life in prison. Carter was sent to a Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice facility until his 18th birthday, when he would be re-sentenced as an adult.
Adult Sentencing and Early Release
The adult re-sentencing came in December 2018 before Jefferson Circuit Judge Charles Cunningham. Carter’s attorneys asked for probation. Prosecutors opposed it, pointing to more than two dozen rule violations Carter had accumulated in juvenile detention. Cunningham denied probation and sent him to adult prison to serve the balance of a 10-year sentence, telling him, “What you need to hear is that you ruined a lot of lives, three lives you snuffed out and lot of other lives attached to those three.”7WAVE3. Teen Involved in Murders to Leave Juvenile Detention, Will Head to Prison
About six months later, in June 2019, Cunningham granted early release through a mechanism similar to shock probation, over the objection of prosecutor Kaleb Noblett, who argued Carter “should not be getting out right now.” Before approving release, the judge required a public apology.7WAVE3. Teen Involved in Murders to Leave Juvenile Detention, Will Head to Prison
Carter was placed on five years of probation. Any violation would trigger a 20-year prison sentence. He was also ordered to pay for headstones for Ordway and Gordon, which the judge called a “very, very small token.” The court noted that Carter had received a settlement from a car accident while incarcerated, and that money would fund the headstones.8WDRB. Louisville Teenager Convicted in Savage 2016 Murders Released From Jail Carter planned to move to Florida to live with family, citing safety concerns.
Testimony Against Brice Rhodes
Rhodes’s trial did not take place until December 2023, after years of delays tied to his courtroom outbursts, threats against judges and attorneys, and an alleged escape attempt.9WAVE3. Cruel, Calculating: Openings Begin in Brice Rhodes Triple Murder Trial Carter’s cooperation was central to the prosecution. He testified that Rhodes shot Jones over the perceived bounty, then ordered the killings of Gordon and Ordway once he suspected they had been talking. He described Rhodes calling the vote and pressuring the group into the stabbings, saying Rhodes “made us take a vote on whether they should live or not. He made us stab them.”4WAVE3. Brice Rhodes Co-Defendant Testifies in Triple Murder Trial
Co-defendant Jacorey Taylor, who was 17 at the time of the crimes, testified under a separate plea deal. Taylor had pleaded guilty to facilitation to murder and tampering charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March 2018.10WLKY. Man Sentenced for 2016 Murders of Teen Brothers Both Taylor and Carter identified Rhodes as the “mastermind” behind all three killings.3Court TV. KY v. Brice Rhodes: Witness to Murder Trial The jury convicted Rhodes on December 18, 2023, of three counts of murder, one count of tampering with physical evidence, and two counts of abuse of a corpse.11WLKY. Jury Begins Deliberations in Brice Rhodes Trial He was sentenced in March 2024 to three consecutive life sentences without parole.12WAVE3. Brice Rhodes Sentenced to Three Life Sentences in Prison Without Parole
Where Carter Is Now
By the time he took the stand at the Rhodes trial, Carter was serving a four-year sentence in Hamilton County, Florida, on unrelated burglary charges.4WAVE3. Brice Rhodes Co-Defendant Testifies in Triple Murder Trial