(FOX 56) —Bell County deputies announced on Thursday that five people have been arrested following the death of a key witness whose brother is a suspect in a large-scale human trafficking and organized crime investigation.
The Bell County Sheriff’s Department posted on Facebook that from Sept. 1 to around 1 a.m. on Sept. 2, multiple law enforcement agencies carried out three warrants in a joint federal investigation involving 49-year-old Tonya Monroe and brothers Cody and Landon Pace.
Authorities alleged that the trio was contacted by Darrell Carnahan, 69, from the Bell County Detention Center, where he has been housed since his arrest.
According to investigators in Bell County, Carnahan’s brother, identified as Bobby Smith, was a key witness against the human trafficking suspect and had power of attorney over him. Officials said Smith allegedly stopped complying with requests for commissary funds and money for bills on Carnahan’s behalf at the jail.
Investigators wrote that Smith had been found dead during the last week of August.
“Carnahan asked the trio to reach out to witnesses and change their testimony against him,” deputies wrote.
Deputies noted that Monroe and the Pace brothers had allegedly moved into Carnahan’s residence following the suspect’s arrest and claimed that monitored text messages from within the Bell County jail revealed that the trio would gain money from Bobby Smith’s death. Monroe was accused of being found with Smith’s “food and debit card.”
Starr Halcomb, 48, was also arrested in the joint investigation and charged with tampering with physical evidence. A fifth man, identified as Joseph Jackson of Bell County, was also charged with human trafficking, commercial sexual activity, and engaging in organized crime.
Jail records indicate that on Sept. 1, Halcomb, Monroe, and Landon Pace were lodged in the Bell County Detention Center. Jackson was lodged on Sept. 2 in the Laurel County Correctional Center, and Cody Pace was lodged on the same day in the Harlan County Jail.
Landon and Cody Pace were each charged with murder, tampering with physical evidence, intimidating a participant in the legal process, and tampering with a witness.
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Monroe was charged with murder, tampering with physical evidence, intimidating a participant in the legal process, tampering with a witness, theft by receipt of a stolen debit card, fraudulent use of a debit card of more than $1,000 but less than $10,000, and wanton abuse or neglect of an adult.
Court records show that an arraignment in the Bobby Smith murder case is set for 11 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3, in Bell County District Court. The joint investigation in the key witness’s death remains ongoing.
Carnahan himself was indicted on Aug. 27 in connection with an indictment for two counts of first-degree rape, human trafficking involving sexual activity, two counts of first-degree strangulation, first-degree assault, first-degree unlawful imprisonment, engaging in a criminal syndicate, and trafficking in a controlled substance-first offense. His arraignment is set for 9 a.m. Oct. 16.