MOULTRIE — The attorney for an unindicted suspect in the 2004 murders of five people in their home has filed a demand for a committal hearing.

This move comes shortly after Southern Circuit District Attorney David Miller filed an intent to seek the death penalty for the other suspect in the case, Jerry Johnny Thompson Jr. of Nashville, Ga. This will be the first death penalty case in Colquitt County since the 1970s, court officials said.

Valdosta attorney Jody Peterman was assigned by the courts to represent suspect Wilma Ann Yvonne Stover, 21, of Nashville, but Stover has yet to be indicted for the murders. The next opportunity to indict Stover would be in March, court officials said.

A demand for committal hearing usually occurs when a defendant is incarcerated and can’t make bond, Peterman said. The hearing, if granted, would determine whether the prosecution has probable cause to believe a defendant has committed that crime, he said.

“Because she is incarcerated, I don’t know if the judge will give me a committal hearing or not. I think I have a right to one,” he said.

Peterman said he has yet to speak to Miller about the case.

“I just know that my client has denied any involvement in this matter at this time as far as I know,” he said.

Thompson, 45, also known as “Cubano,” faces 25 felony counts for the execution-style murders of Jaime Cruz Resendez, 25; his wife, Katrina “Tina” Darlene Resendez, 29; the couple’s son, Juan Carlos Resendez, 3; Katrina’s mother, Betty Watts, 50, of Norman Park; and family friend and housekeeper, Liliana Alegria Aguilar, 30.

He is currently serving a 27-year sentence in federal prison for drug trafficking. Stover is serving a five-year federal sentence, also for trafficking, with an additional five years of supervised release.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents have said that Jaime Resendez was involved in a marijuana trafficking ring that stretched from Texas to Moultrie. The drug link resulted in federal indictments in April 2005 of Thompson, Stover and four other known associates of Resendez for trafficking more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana with a street value of $1 million.