Pictured is Robert “Bobby” Farrell, Jr., who was murdered on July 6, 2021. On Dec. 1, 2021, Keyanta Gardner, one of two people charged in Farrell’s murder, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Photo courtesy of the funeral home.
Someone who was accepted into the family akin to a son would become the one to help orchestrate the death of their actual son.
Keyanta Gardner, 24, grew up with the Farrell family in New Richmond, accepted as a brother by Robert “Bobby” Farrell, Jr., Tyler Farrell and their friends, and looked at as another son by Jeni and Bob Farrell. He went on family vacations and was at family cookouts. He was even a groomsman at a family wedding.
In July this year, he, along with his alleged co-conspirator, Christian Beasley, orchestrated a scheme by which to kill Farrell and dump his body in Monroe Township.
Now, on Dec. 1, after previously pleading guilty, Gardner was sentenced to life in prison without parole by Clermont County Pleas Judge Richard Ferenc.
When Gardner and Beasley came to Farrell’s home to pick him up on July 6, a Ring doorbell camera recorded Farrell leaving his home with Gardner. Once in Gardner’s vehicle, the three drove for a short time while smoking marijuana until Beasley allegedly shot Farrell twice in the head from behind.
After the deed, and Farrell’s parents reported him missing, Gardner ingratiated himself to the family as usual, as if he knew nothing of his former friend’s demise.
For six days, he watched the family panic, pray and hope for Farrell’s safe return. As far as Gardner was concerned in the narrative he offered, he drove Farrell to Dee’s Dairy Bar in New Richmond, whereupon Farrell got into a vehicle with an unknown individual. Another narrative he told was that Farrell was with an ex-girlfriend.
The search for Farrell over those six days would involve the New Richmond Police Department, the Clermont County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations.
When New Richmond Police began to suspect Gardner was involved, the family defended Gardner, thinking there was no way that could be the case.
He hugged and prayed with the family for Farrell’s safe return.
Initially, Gardner was charged with tampering with evidence and obstructing official police business. Once Farrell’s body was found, he was charged with a slew of murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges.
Gardner admitted to police he paid Beasley $500 to murder Farrell. Two days prior to the murder, Gardner’s bank account showed a withdrawal of $500.
Allegedly, after the killing, Gardner and Beasley went to Dollar General to purchase towels to help with the clean-up. Both were seen on surveillance video cleaning the vehicle out within an hour of the murder and throwing various items into a dumpster.
The morning after the killing, Beasley took the vehicle to his place of employment and attempted to clean the vehicle more thoroughly, telling co-workers that “someone had vomited in his vehicle the night before.”
Beasley has also been charged in Farrell’s murder and will next be in court on Jan. 28, 2022.
Farrell was 23-years-old and had a four-year-old daughter. He graduated from Glen Este High School in 2016. Prior to his death, he was set for a promotion as a dispatcher at Total Quality Logistics.
At sentencing, Ferenc noted that he received more than 40 letters from immediate family members and friends of Farrell’s, as well as photographs.
Family members on both sides were given the opportunity to speak to Ferenc before he handed down the sentence.
Ricky Gerwe, reading a statement on behalf of Farrell’s brother, Tyler, was the first to speak to the Court.
“What you have destroyed and took from us is beyond measure,” he said.
Gerwe said they looked at Gardner as a little brother and the Farrells took him in as a son.
“It’s unbelievable that you would crush our trust like this,” he said.
Katie, Farrell’s little sister, spoke next. She said her, Tyler and Bobby were an “unbreakable trio.”
“The month of July 2021 will always be a blur in my mind. My family and I experienced something so cruel and absolutely torturing, and Gardner watched,” she said.
She recounted how three days after Gardner helped to kill her brother, she and Gardner took a drive to retrace the drive Gardner and Farrell had taken prior to his death.
In doing so, at the time, she recorded the drive in the hopes that Gardner would remember something, tell the police and help to bring her brother home.
“I know now he took me the same route he took my brother that night. I know now that he told me to turn around and that we went too far two minutes away from where he left my brother’s body,” she said.
The grandmother to Gardner’s four-year-old, speaking on behalf of her daughter, talked about the four-year-old’s perspective since her father’s death.
Jeni Farrell spoke next about her son. The last thing he said to her was that he was going to go cruise with Gardner and he’d be back and that he loved them. Gardner also said he loved her and “Big Bob,” Bob Ferrell.
“I held this man as he broke down crying because he was missing his best friend. I told him I wasn’t mad at him, I just wanted my son home and safe. I just wanted to hug my baby,” she said.
The murder has changed everything for Jeni, as she has no trust anymore, is scared now and worries constantly.
“Our family will never be the same. There will always be a huge hole in our heart,” she said.
Bob Farrell spoke next about his son. He said there’s so much he can’t say because it hurts.
“When we found out Keyanta did all of this, it was devastating for us. It felt like I lost two sons at one time. I never in my life thought he could do it,” he said.
When people would ask if it was possible Keyanta did it, Bob would say, “Not him, no way.”
But Bob said he and the family got played for fools and dummies.
“How do you play people like that? After we open our family and our love to him?” Bob said.
A few members of Gardner’s family and friends also spoke about him.
Sean Williams, who worked with Gardner for two years at Holman Motors, broke down in tears bewildered at how he did something like this.
“This was a shock to everybody,” he said.
He talked about how “slow” Gardner could be and that he was more a follower who needed step-by-step instructions on how to do things.
Gardner’s uncle spoke next, offering prayers to both families involved in a “sad situation.”
“But this is not the Keyanta that I know. He’s a loving kid. He sticks to his stuff a lot, he’s simple,” he said.
Gardner’s mother also spoke, apologizing to everyone involved and saying this is not her son.
“I never had any problems with him as a kid, as an adult; he does what he’s supposed to do,” she said.
She hoped there could be some form of leniency for parole after Gardner serves so many years because he’s a “good person.”
“He was not raised like this. We are not like this, cold-blooded, bad people,” she said.
The Prosecutor’s Office then had a chance to make its recommendation for sentencing. In laying out its reasoning, prosecutors said Gardner used his friendship with Farrell, and a little bit of money, to “commit the ultimate betrayal” in a murder-for-hire plot.
With that, the Prosecutor’s Office recommended life in prison without parole.
In mitigation, Robert Karl, Gardner’s defense attorney, said he was asking for the judge to have a little bit of mercy.
Karl said Gardner voluntarily came in to confess to police and then showed them where Farrell’s body was. And that it was his decision to plead guilty to avoid any further pain to the family.
“He is very remorseful. His tears are genuine. He knows he’s going to prison for many, many years,” he said.
Karl put the onus on Beasley, that he was the leader in this situation and Gardner a follower. Which doesn’t excuse Gardner’s behavior, he said, but ought to enable some mercy.
Gardner then spoke on his own behalf, saying he was easily influenced by Beasley and scared for his own life.
“I couldn’t think of a better solution, but now I understand it was a very, very coward, selfish and evil move. I did it because I knew something was going to happen to me if I didn’t do what I was told. Bobby did not deserve this at all; he did nothing to me,” he said.
He added that he was scared of Beasley and “him and his guys” getting to his family, if he went to the police.
“I’m sorry, I really am, I’m asking for forgiveness,” he said.
In his pre-sentencing report, Gardner said he thinks Beasley wanted a “hit” — that is, killing someone — to gain street credit.
Ferenc finished the sentencing hearing by talking about Gardner. He said he appreciates the effect this situation has had on both families, but the difference is that Gardner’s family will still get to see him.
“And the only thing the Farrells can do and their friends can do, is visit his grave,” he said.
On the remorse question, Ferenc thinks Gardner’s own words in “deflecting” everything to Beasley shows his lack of remorse.
“It’s just unfathomable to me,” Ferenc said, about how someone could do this to a trusted friend.
He added, “This is, in the 44 years I’ve been an active participant in the criminal justice system, and I’ve prosecuted murder cases myself similar case to this when I was a prosecutor, this is one of the most brutal, cold-blooded, planned executions I’ve seen in 44 years.”
In addition, Ferenc said he thinks the recidivism potential is high and with that, he sentenced Gardner to life in prison without parole.
On the firearm specification, Gardner also received five years mandatory. On count three of conspiracy to commit murder, Gardner received 11 to 16 and a half years to run concurrently with his life in prison without the possibility of parole sentence.
Ferenc finished off his remarks and sentencing by noting that Gardner will never be released from prison “until he dies.”