MOULTRIE – Sounds of crying and sniffling filled the Colquitt County Annex Tuesday as Jeffrey Alan Peacock pled not guilty to the murder of five friends.
Peacock is accused of shooting and killing Jordan Croft, Jonathan Edwards, Alicia Norman, Jones Pidcock, and Reid Williams in May 2016.
The five victims were found dead after a fire at a home on Rossman Dairy Road. Investigators believe Peacock set the house on fire to try to conceal the crime.
Dozens of people met in the annex parking lot and walked in together. But as the charges were read, many of those in attendance broke down in tears.
“When you find five people killed at once, that obviously has five times the impact,” says District Attorney Brad Shealy.
Breaking through the whispers, Peacock pled not guilty to all counts, causing the room to go silent.
Reopening old wounds, both the district attorney and Peacock’s attorney say the crime has a created a rift between family, friends, and neighbors.
“I think the community is obviously very divided. If you sat through the courtroom today, you could see there were people on both sides,” says Burt Baker with the Georgia Capital Defenders Office.
It could be several months before the case goes to trial.
Peacock faces the death penalty, and the average capitol case that goes to trial takes about three years.
The district attorney’s office expects the trial to be set for no earlier than the middle of 2018.
