State Supreme Court dismisses Peacock appeal
Published 10:51 am Wednesday, September 7, 2022
- Technicians with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation continue to search for clues Tuesday at the scene of a fire near Moultrie, Georgia. Five bodies were found in the burning residence.
MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Georgia Supreme Court has rejected arguments raised by a Moultrie man convicted of killing five people in 2016.
In a decision released Wednesday, the court upheld the murder conviction of Jeffery Peacock.
Peacock was convicted in a 2019 bench trial of fatally shooting Jonathan Garrett Edwards, Ramsey Jones Pidcock and Aaron Reid Williams, all 21; Alicia Brooke Norman, 20; and Jordan Shane Croft, 22. He was also convicted of setting their house on fire to cover up the crime, and he was convicted of three counts of aggravated cruelty to animals after three dogs were found dead at the crime scene.
He was convicted on all 14 counts with which he was charged, including five counts of malice murder, five counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony (which were merged into a single count), one count of arson, and three counts of aggravated cruelty to animals. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole plus 20 years to be served consecutively on the arson charge. He was also sentenced to five years in prison for the merged firearms charge and five years each for the animal cruelty charges, all of which were to be served concurrently with the other sentences.
Peacock based his appeal on four arguments, but the court rejected all four:
• The evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions for malice murder and the associated possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. The court recounted evidence presented at the trial and determined it was sufficient to sustain the convictions.
• The trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence found during the search of his truck. Peacock argued that the truck was not specifically mentioned in the search warrant and it was parked away from the house, which is where the warrant allowed investigators to search. The court determined the truck was within the house’s curtilage — the area immediately surrounding and associated with the home — which is covered by the search warrant. Within the truck investigators found blood-stained clothing, which Peacock’s attorneys had tried unsuccessfully to get suppressed prior to the trial in 2019.
• His trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by failing to seek to suppress his statements to a GBI agent who allegedly provided him a hope of benefit in violation of OCGA § 24-8-824. The court said the hope of benefit refers to promises related to reduced criminal punishment — a shorter sentence, lesser charges, or no charges at all. The court’s review of the GBI agent’s statements found no such promises. “Here, Peacock highlights three parts of his interview to show that he was offered an improper hope of benefit, but none fits that description,” the court’s decision stated.
• His cruelty-to-animals convictions and sentences should have been for misdemeanors rather than felonies based on the rule of lenity. The court document explains that the rule of lenity requires if two charges cover the same offense, the defendant should be sentenced for the less serious offense. The court said both cruelty to animals and aggravated cruelty to animals can apply to causing an animal’s death, the aggravated statute involves a level of malice that the lesser charge does not. The court determined he was properly sentenced for the charge of which he was convicted.
