Revealed: senior US Brethren figure put $500,000 into bail for church member now convicted of killing four in Dayton crash

Brethren Intelligence can exclusively reveal that Jeff Southard, the registered statutory agent of both the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church in Ohio and Rapid Relief Team LLC, contributed $500,000 towards the $2.5 million bail bond of Clayton Hughes, the church member convicted last week over a crash that killed four men near Dayton International Airport.

Court records show that Southard also wrote a letter in support of amending Hughes' bail conditions. The amendment allowed Hughes to move from his Dayton address back to the family home in Columbus, Ohio, where he could live with his family and attend services at his local Plymouth Brethren Christian Church meeting room. The records also show that Hughes is married to a niece of Southard, making the man who helped fund his bail his wife's uncle.

The crash and the conviction

On the afternoon of 1 April 2024, Hughes rear-ended a pickup truck on Interstate 70 and did not stop. The pickup driver followed him onto the airport access road, relaying information to police. Prosecutors said Hughes, who was drunk, reached speeds approaching 90mph in a 40mph zone before T-boning a minivan at an intersection on airport property.

The four men inside the van were killed: Larry Edwards, 77, of Tipp City; Richard Coatney, 77, of Piqua; Richard Turnbull, 67, of Lewisburg; and Stephen Cassel, 72, of Clayton. A fifth man, Juan Nash, was seriously injured. All were working on airport grounds for the car rental company Enterprise when the crash happened.

Hughes was arrested in New Jersey in August 2024, four months after the crash, and released after the $2.5 million bond was posted. Court documents show the bail was posted by fellow Brethren member Robert Johnstone, with later filings recording Southard's $500,000 contribution.

On Friday 7 August 2026, one week before his trial was due to begin, Hughes entered a plea of no contest to all charges, including eight counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and operating a vehicle under the influence (OVI). A no contest plea is not an admission of guilt but accepts that the evidence is sufficient to convict. The judge accepted the pleas and found him guilty. Hughes will be sentenced on 8 September and faces the prospect of decades in prison.

The company Hughes worked for has already paid for the crash in the civil courts. Benchmark Industrial Inc. reached a $16 million settlement with the victims' estates and Mr Nash after they alleged the company was negligent in employing Hughes and entrusting him with the vehicle.

Who is Jeff Southard?

Ohio state records show Southard was the named statutory agent when Rapid Relief Team LLC was incorporated as a domestic non-profit in December 2016, with Mick Strange signing as authorised representative to record the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church as its sole member. Rapid Relief Team is the church's charitable arm, best known for catering to fire, police and other emergency crews during major incidents, not unlike the one Hughes caused.

Southard was also among the incorporators, alongside Rod Diplock, Mick Strange and Matt Lock, when the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church itself was incorporated as an Ohio non-profit in 2015, and state records show he remained its agent as of May 2026.

His LinkedIn presence lists him as Regional Managing Director at OneSchool Global North America, the schooling system for Brethren children, and as a management consultant to Brethren-connected companies including Levolux, Minetek, BlastOne International and InDecca. He was also a director of Unispace Global for a decade, from January 2011 to March 2021. Unispace was the business owned by Gareth and Charles Hales, sons of global Plymouth Brethren leader Bruce Hales.

In our assessment, Jeff Southard is one of the four most senior Plymouth Brethren Christian Church figures in the United States.

The pattern

Ex-members describe a drinking culture within the Brethren, particularly around spirits such as whisky and bourbon, and the pattern surfaces in court reporting. In Suffolk this January, Kester Fentiman admitted drink-driving at more than twice the legal limit after an office Christmas party; the court heard he was a practising member of the Plymouth Brethren who attended church daily. In New Zealand, Exclusive Brethren member Russell Stewart crashed an overloaded ute near Dargaville in 2016, killing his wife, his 16-year-old daughter and a family friend. He was charged with driving under the influence causing death and pleaded guilty to amended careless-driving charges; a breath test taken nearly two hours after the crash still recorded him over the limit. At his sentencing, the Crown told the court a veil of silence had descended, with no church member cooperating with the police investigation.

What stands out in this case is what did not happen. Nothing in the public record suggests Hughes faced the church's customary discipline of being "shut up" or excommunicated after the crash. Instead, a fellow Brethren businessman posted $2.5 million bail, a senior church figure contributed $500,000 of it and wrote in support of easing his conditions, and Hughes returned to his family and his meeting room while four families buried their dead.

Sources: Montgomery County Common Pleas Court records; Ohio Secretary of State incorporation and agent records; LinkedIn; WHIO and Dayton Daily News court reporting; East Anglian Daily Times (January 2026); NZ Herald and Sunday Star-Times court reporting (2016–2018). Assessments of connections and seniority are the editorial opinion of Brethren Intelligence, based on the public record.