Attorney says investigator tricked Peacock

Published 6:57 pm Tuesday, October 9, 2018

MOULTRIE, Ga. — After arguing Tuesday for throwing out a Colquitt County murder suspect’s statements to police, defense lawyers said they may have presented nearly all pre-trial legal motions.

An attorney for Jeffrey Alan Peacock, who faces a death-penalty trial in the 2016 slaying of five people at their residence, told the judge the only other issue he may have is whether to request moving the trial to another county.

At the conclusion of the brief Tuesday morning hearing, Colquitt County Superior Court Judge James E. Hardy proposed that attorneys from both sides appear in court in early 2019. Hardy suggested mid-January, depending on when both defense attorneys and prosecutors have free dates to be present.

Gerald T. Word, director of the Georgia Capital Defender’s Office and one of two attorneys representing Peacock, told Hardy that once the trial date is set and he gets information on the make up of the jury he will decide whether to seek a change of venue.

Prior to that exchange, defense attorney Allan Sincox told the court, in which there were about seven supporters of Peacock in the room and about double that many on the victim’s side of the room, that officers confused and tricked Peacock.

Peacock has been indicted on murder charges in the deaths of Jonathan Garrett Edwards, Ramsey Jones Pidcock and Aaron Reid Williams, all 21, 20-year-old Alicia Brooke Norman; and Jordan Shane Croft, 22.

All five were shot in the head on May 15, 2016, at their 505 Rossman Dairy Road residence, which was set on fire after the assault.  

Ultimately, Sincox said, when questioned three days after the slayings Peacock made statements that were self-incriminating toward the end of the seven-hour interview with agents with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

“The truth is what (police) believe is the truth, and if they didn’t get what they want, they keep going,” he said of the investigators’ attitude at the outset of the interview as Peacock had been identified as the chief suspect at the time.

Peacock’s mother drove him to the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office, where agents spoke with him in an office of the building where the Criminal Investigation Division is located.

After Peacock arrived a GBI agent went over the rights — those often shown being read to arrestees in television police shows — an individual has when being interviewed by police. The five items, known as the Miranda warning, include the right to remain silent, to have an attorney present during questioning and to stop answering questions at any time.

Peacock indicated he understood his legal rights, but police indicated to him the process was “just a formality” and that other witnesses were being asked to sign a statement saying they understood the process. Others had not been asked to sign the statement, Sincox said.

Sincox, who was basing his statements on video and audio recordings made of the discussions between Peacock and investigators, said that after initially being calm, the primary investigator left to speak with other police officers and that when he returned he became “aggressive.” The officer also told Peacock that he knew he was not telling the truth.

Hardy previously has ruled that evidence found in Peacock’s truck, seized at the scene of the fire, can be used in court.

During a third round of questions Peacock “broke down” and was crying, Sincox said, and after further questioning gave a statement that placed him at the scene of the shootings.

Peacock told police he “couldn’t say” the identity of the other person he said was at the residence during the shootings. That, Sincox said, should have been taken as a declaration by Peacock that he wanted to end the questioning.

Hardy did not immediately rule on the motion to strike Peacock’s statements.