The last five of eight suspects in the October 2020 Ohio murder of an Akron man were sentenced to years in prison for their roles in hiding the crime and disposing of his body.
Medina County Prosecutor S. Forrest Thompson said up to six of the eight suspects were present one night shortly after the killing of 27-year-old Iron Jailen Cannon in October 2020, when the group parked in two vehicles on Interstate 76 over Lake Milton, pretending one of the vehicles was disabled so they could throw nine plastic buckets containing Cannon’s body into the water.
It took nearly a year for the man’s killer — following his conviction — to tell police where the remains were, Thompson said.
30-year-old Justin Hornbeck had initially been charged with murder in the death of Cannon, who prosecutors say was shot at an apartment in Wadsworth in October 2020. Hornbeck pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter last October and is serving a 30-year prison sentence.
On Friday, Medina County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Collier sentenced brothers 29-year-old Tyrone L. Render and 30-year-old Walter L. Render IV to up to 12 years in prison. Both had pleaded guilty to felony charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice and gross abuse of a corpse.
29-year-old Autumn M. Knight was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of attempted engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice and gross abuse of a corpse.
56-year-old Marcus Y. Clark was sentenced to two years in prison on the same charges as Knight after the judge sent him out of the room to consult with his attorney regarding a last-minute pleading.
39-year-old Antonio W. Moore was given a one-year sentence on a felony charge of obstructing justice for lying to police investigating Cannon’s murder, prosecutors said.
In addition to Hornbeck, 34-year-old Christopher J. Williams and 29-year-old Samantha P. McCune, previously pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the murder.
Williams was sentenced to three to four and a half years in prison after being found guilty of second-degree felony engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, third-degree felony tampering with evidence, third-degree felony obstructing justice, and gross abuse of a corpse, a fifth-degree felony.
McCune pleaded guilty to a first-degree misdemeanor count of attempted obstruction of justice and was sentenced to six months of community control.
Thompson said Tyrone Render picked up Cannon from his home in Akron, then took him to his apartment in Wadsworth, where Render, Cannon and Hornbeck ended up drinking. Hornbeck later shot Cannon one time in the head.
Thompson said the motive for the shooting remains unclear, but investigators determined Tyrone Render got members of his family and friends to help hide Cannon’s body.
“When you look at all the players, they were all orchestrated and coordinated by Tyrone Render,” Thompson said. “Why they became involved may remain a mystery forever. They took it to such an obscene level that it defies logic.”
Thompson said the first two suspects who became involved were Walter Render and Knight, who Thompson said was a former girlfriend of Tyrone.
Within days of the shooting, Thompson said, suspects including Hornbeck and the Renders took Cannon’s body to a location in a rural area in northern Summit County, where they burned his remains “for hours” in a barrel, then buried what was left in a shallow grave.
Thompson said accomplices returned a day later, dug up the remains and took them to a garage in Akron, where they were put into nine plastic buckets, which were then filled with concrete.
Shortly thereafter, a group of suspects got into two vehicles and drove the buckets to Lake Milton.
Knight was the first to be sentenced. She did not respond after Cannon’s mother, Barbara Singletary, called for a maximum sentence for all of the suspects.
“They took my son’s body and tore it to pieces, and hid it and threw it in some water and didn’t talk about it for a year,” she said. ‘All of you guys are responsible, and I don’t care what you told the police. All of you are responsible for my son’s death … I’m looking for the max, and not no three years.”
Singletary had even stronger words for Tyrone Render, who received a nine-to-12 year sentence − the same as his brother, but with an additional one-year mandatory gun specification.
“I believe you are totally responsible for his murder,” Singletary said. “I believe you are the mastermind, the way you took my baby to be killed, and he thought you were a friend,” she said. “You should not have let anything happen to my son … you lied when they called and asked you where he was. That was a lie right there. You lied through the whole scenario.
“I believe you are the killer. I believe that with all my heart … Can you tell me why you killed him? Can you tell me that?”
Singletary then rushed out of the courtroom, overcome with tears.
“I can’t even explain my actions but I can tell you one thing for sure, Iron was a brother to me,” Tyrone Render said, addressing Cannon’s father, Michael Taylor, and other members of Cannon’s family. “If I could kill myself, then I would … I wish it was me instead of him.
“My actions were selfish, unkind, inhumane, unlawful, I understand that .. and I am sorry, truly and honestly,” he said.
“I don’t believe you,” Taylor responded.
During his sentencing, Walter Render made a brief statement, adding favorable comments about him made by his attorney do not “lessen the fact” of his guilt.
“I have done things to better myself, but at the same time, my actions in the past don’t make up for my actions,” he said.
Clark, the oldest of the defendants, is Tyrone Render’s uncle. He had made a last-minute filing in his case and returned to court after withdrawing the filing.
Collier, who had grilled Clark earlier on whether he wanted to accept the plea deal or go with the new filing, congratulated Clark with sarcasm.
“You got your two years,” Collier said. “What happened that night was terrible, and what happened after that night was terrible.”
Referring to the family, Collier continued.
“They’re looking for some finality in this, and you’re looking for a way out.”
Singletary blasted Clark for having failed to “be the adult” when contacted by his nephew regarding the conspiracy.
At the end of the morning’s hearings, which lasted about an hour and a half, family members filed by and hugged Wadsworth Police Chief Dan Chafin, who had been a detective on the case before being promoted to police chief in May 2021.
Chafin later struggled to speak, but said he had formed close bonds with the family over the long investigation.
“When you think about the case and you think about what happened, it’s really hard to imagine that we could have done anything to satisfy them,” he said.
Thompson credited Chafin, Wadsworth Police Detective James Allenby and Medina County Assistant Prosecutor Michael McNamara for their work on the investigation.
“This started as a missing persons investigation in Akron,” Thompson said. “At the start, there was no evidence, no body and no weapon.
“But for the work of the Wadsworth police, this would never have come to light.
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