COLUMBUS – Five men have been indicted on federal charges stemming from a drug operation that authorities say included the murders of three people, including two people whose dismembered bodies were found buried in a West Side home earlier this year.
Three men from Columbus and two from Ashville face a variety of charges.
The indictment alleges Larry Williams killed 23-year-old Connor Reynolds, of Grove City, in June 2018 during an armed robbery at a Columbus home where Reynolds was staying.
Two months later, Williams, 40 allegedly killed two Columbus residents in what authorities say was an effort to cover up Reynolds’ murder.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, Williams shot Reynolds in a Northeast Side home on June 27, 2018, while robbing a marijuana dealer with Kyle Castle and Jesse Climer.
Williams then allegedly murdered Henry Watson, 52, and Tera Pennington, 48, at an address in Franklinton in August to cover up the crime, and instructed several others to destroy evidence and dismember the bodies of Watson and Pennington, whose bodies were found in January in the basement of a home on Sullivant Avenue on the West Side.
Williams could eventually face death penalty if he is convicted of the charges against him.
A total of 13 men and women have been charged in connection with the drug ring that included the five men named in the indictment. Most of those defendants have already pleaded guilty.
Castle, 29, remains at large.