A Columbus man who killed a man during a robbery and then killed, dismembered and buried in a basement two other people to prevent them from giving police information about the first killing will spend the rest of his life in prison.
Larry J. Williams Jr., 44, was convicted in December by a federal court jury in Columbus of 16 counts, including murder of a witness, murder related to a drug trafficking crime, conspiracy to destroy evidence, and drug trafficking charges.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson sentenced Williams on July 1 to three consecutive life sentences plus another five years in prison.
According to court records, Williams, who went by the nicknames “J” and “J Streets,” led a conspiracy to rob a marijuana dealer of money and drugs on June 27, 2018. During that incident, 23-year-old Connor Reynolds, of Grove City, was shot and killed.
Two months later, in August 2018, Williams killed 52-year-old Henry Watson, of Columbus, to keep Watson from talking to police about Williams’ role in shooting Reynolds, according to court records. Immediately after, Williams killed 48-year-old Tera Pennington, who was present when Watson was killed, so that she could not be a witness in either of the other killings.
Court records say Williams then instructed other people to dismember the bodies of Watson and Pennington and move them to a home on the 2400 block of Sullivant Avenue on the city’s West Side.
The bodies were found in January 2021, buried in concrete in the home’s Sullivant Avenue basement.
Court records also say Williams used a home on Stevens Avenue to sell multiple drugs, including fentanyl and heroin, and then allowed addicts to use the drugs inside the home. The Stevens Avenue home is where police believe Watson and Pennington were killed, according to court records.
Federal prosecutors have charged a total of 13 people in connection with the killings and the drug trafficking ring.
Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at bbruner@gannett.com or on Bluesky at @bethanybruner.dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus man who killed 1 during robbery and then buried witnesses in basement sentenced
Reporting by Bethany Bruner, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
