Judge Flournoy to preside over death penalty trial
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Cobb Superior Court Judge Robert Flournoy will preside over the death penalty trial for the July 2021 killing of three men at Kennesaw’s Pinetree Country Club.
Flournoy’s name was randomly selected from Cobb’s Superior Court judges to fill this role. The case was previously assigned to Judge Kimberly Childs, but the move to seek the death penalty by Cobb District Attorney Flynn Broady triggered the selection of a new judge.
Three named defendants in the case were charged last month with kidnapping and murder.
Charged with orchestrating the killings were Bryan Anthony Rhoden and Justin Caleb Pruitt. Prosecutors say they bound Paul Pierson, 76, of Kansas, and Henry Valdez, 46, of California, with duct tape and zip ties in Jonesboro and forced them into a pickup truck. Rhoden then drove the men to the Cobb golf course, where he shot them, investigators allege.
A third defendant, Taylor Nicole Cameron, is accused of retrieving the gun used in the killings from near the golf course at Rhoden’s request. The third victim, Gene Siller, Pinetree’s golf pro, is believed to have been killed when he went to investigate a truck on the course and came upon an active crime.
Flournoy, who is not seeking reelection, is scheduled to retire at the end of the year. If the trial is not wrapped up by his retirement, the case will be taken over by his successor.
In the race to replace Judge Flournoy, Sonja N. Brown and James Luttrell are headed to a June 21 runoff.