Friends of fire victims take the stand in Peacock case

MOULTRIE, Ga. — The prosecution continued building its timeline Tuesday morning into the deaths of five people three years ago.

Jeffery Alan Peacock is accused of killing Jonathan Garrett Edwards, Ramsey Jones Pidcock and Aaron Reid Williams, all 21; Alicia Brooke Norman, 20; and Jordan Shane Croft, 22 — then setting their house on fire to cover up the crime.

In the second day of testimony, three people were called to the stand to discuss the Friday and Saturday that preceded the fire on Sunday morning, May 15, 2016. Two of them were friends of both the deceased and Peacock; the third didn’t know them but served to place one of the other witnesses at a particular place at a certain time.

Mika Snipes, who was particularly close to Norman, said all of them — the victims, Peacock, herself and others —were at the 505 Rossman Dairy Road residence on Friday night. She said all were drinking, doing cocaine and smoking marijuana.

“We were up all night,” she said, except that Norman went to bed earlier because she had to work the next day. Snipes said she probably went home around 4 or 5 Saturday morning.

She said Edwards and Norman, who were boyfriend and girlfriend, and Williams lived in the house, but from testimony throughout the trial, it wasn’t uncommon for other members of the group to stay overnight.

She said she returned to the house sometime the next day, probably after lunch. When she arrived, she was arguing with her mother on the phone as she walked in the house, and that woke Williams and Peacock.

She said she didn’t stay long. Norman came home while she was there, and both women left separately soon afterwards.

Snipes said she stayed at home most of the afternoon because her car was in the shop. Later, Williams and Peacock picked her up in Peacock’s truck, she said, and they went back to the house.

That night, she was on the porch with Peacock, Williams and Edwards. Norman had already gone to bed. Pidcock and Croft arrived after spending the day on the river. Snipes said Pidcock lay down in a chair in the living room and very soon went to sleep.

Saturday’s get-together was very calm, she said. There were only about 12 beers between them and nobody had any money for more. She said Peacock took her home about midnight, and Edwards and Norman were already in bed when she left.

Snipes said she lived maybe five minutes away on Rondo Gay Road.

She didn’t stay home long, though. She asked her grandmother if she could use her car to go to Alicia Norman’s. With permission she took it, but she drove to a residence on Schley Church Road, where she spent the night with a different group of people.

Joni Parker was one of them. She didn’t know Snipes, and she said she was asleep when Snipes arrived. Parker guessed it was about 2 a.m. Parker said she got up about 8 a.m. and found Snipes asleep on the couch. Parker estimated Snipes left the residence about 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

During Snipes’ testimony, she said she had told the GBI “untruthful things” about that Sunday morning. She said she told the GBI she had been back out to the Rossman Dairy Road house that morning because she didn’t want to get caught in the lie she told her grandmother.

In addition, she said she was under the influence of methamphetamine when she spoke with the GBI agent. She said she called him back the next day and arranged for a second interview to clarify and correct what she’d said at first.

“My days got messed up,” she said on the witness stand. “Everything was running together. I was just talking.”

Snipes said she’s been clean of drugs for two years now and is in training to be a veterinary technician.

Ben Littleton was there Friday night too. In his testimony he affirmed he was drinking but not doing cocaine — he said he was trying to get in the military at the time. He thought Snipes was there, but he couldn’t recall whether Peacock was or not.

That was the night, he said, that Edwards wanted the friends to vote on whether to continue to allow Peacock to be with them.

Peacock had formerly lived in the house on Rossman Dairy Road, but Edwards had established a “no drugs” rule, according to Snipes, who said Peacock had broken the rule and was kicked out.

Littleton remembered Peacock being kicked out and thought it had to do with drug use, but he didn’t remember details.

Snipes described how everyone except Edwards, Norman and Williams were kicked out of the house, but how they let everyone back into their circle. Peacock was the last to be accepted back.

Littleton testified Edwards approached him that Friday night about shutting Peacock out again because of his use of Spice and other drugs. He said there was a vote to separate ties — which he implied was unanimous — but he didn’t know if anyone ever told Peacock about it.

Defense attorney Jerry Word asked Littleton when he told anyone about this secret vote. Littleton said he’d told his mother shortly after the fire, but it was only last week when he shared it with law enforcement, after his mother reminded him of it.

The bench trial broke for lunch early on Tuesday and will resume about 1:30 p.m. when the state is expected to call forensic experts from the GBI Crime Lab.

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