MOULTRIE, Ga. — If a capital murder case against a Moultrie man accused of killing five people last year at their Rossman Dairy Road home goes to trial it would be the first time since 1983 that Colquitt County prosecutors have sought the death penalty in a murder case.

On Friday, District Attorney Brad Shealy’s office announced that prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Jeffrey Alan Peacock. Peacock is accused of shooting the five young adults — four men and one woman — at their 505 Rossman Dairy Road residence and then setting fire to the house in May 2016.

Two attorneys from the Georgia Capital Defender Office filed paperwork on Monday and Tuesday with the Colquitt County Clerk of Court that they will be representing Peacock.

An indictment issued by a Colquitt County Grand Jury in March charges Peacock with five counts of malice murder, five counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, three counts aggravated cruelty to dogs and one count arson. Prosecutors alleged in the document that Peacock shot Jonathan Garrett Edwards, Ramsey Jones Pidcock and Aaron Reid Williams, all 21; 20-year-old Alicia Brooke Norman; and Jordan Shane Croft, 22. Peacock was 24 at the time.

Each was shot in the head, according to the indictment. In addition, one dog’s skull was cracked and two dogs died inside the residence from burns and smoke inhalation.

In a news release Friday, Shealy indicated that on Monday he will file an “Official Notice to Seek Death Penalty” at the court clerk’s office here.

“This tragic case clearly meets the statutory requirements for imposition of the death penalty as set forth in the Georgia Code,” Shealy said. “I will be assisting Sr. Assistant District Attorney Jim Prine, of our Thomasville office, who will be lead counsel.”

The last death penalty case in Colquitt County stemmed from the 1973 slaying of a Moultrie police officer.

In 1974 a Colquitt County Superior Court jury found Willie X. Ross guilty of killing Moultrie Police Department Lt. Tommy Meridith, who had responded on the night of Aug. 24, 1973, to the scene of a reported robbery at the residence at one of the owners of Clover Farms Highway Grocery.

Willie Ross along with his brother Freddie Ross and two other men had the previous day trailed the person who closed the store to the home of the J.R. Stanford family before returning to Madison, Fla., according to trial evidence recounted in an appeal document. The next night they returned and entered Stanford’s residence wearing stocking masks and held the family at gunpoint while they grabbed valuables, including Stanford’s .32-caliber revolver.

Told that Stanford did not have the money, but that Wendell Norman, Stanford’s son-in-law and Robert Lee’s business partner in the store, would be coming to the house later, the robbers waited there. When Norman arrived, the robbers demanded that he take Theodore Ross and Freddie Lee King to get the money, taking Stanford’s teenage stepdaughter as a hostage, while Willie Ross and Rudy Turner waited at Stanford’s house.

When Norman woke Lee and told him the situation, Lee grabbed his gun and fired into the hallway. The robbers threatened to kill one of Lee’s young sons if he did not cooperate and he turned over the receipts box containing about $20,000 in cash and checks.

Meredith arrived, followed closely by another police car. Armed with a shotgun he confronted Willie Ross in the Stanfords’ kitchen. The robbers tried to use a family member as a hostage but all were able to run into another room and shut the door.

Turner was armed with a .22-caliber pistol, the evidence presented at trial showed, and Willie Ross had Stanford’s .32-caliber gun. At that time witnesses heard an exchange of gunfire in the kitchen.

 Meredith was hit in the chest at “point-blank range” and the autopsy determined the bullet was a .32-caliber. The guns were thrown down as the men ran away. Investigation showed that Turner pulled the trigger on the .22 but that the gun misfired without discharging a bullet.

After the 1974 trial a judge imposed the death penalty for the murder of Meredith, a 23-year department veteran scheduled to retire six months after the shooting. The judge also sentenced Willie Ross to life on an armed robbery count and 20 years for kidnapping.

The appeals court denied several of the claims Willie Ross’ attorneys made, including allegations that Theodore Ross gave inaccurate testimony and was offered a deal by prosecutors to testify.  It also upheld the holding of Willie Ross’ trial in Colquitt County and said pre-trial publicity did not influence jurors.

But it agreed with Willie Ross’ claim that the death penalty was at that time in Georgia used in an arbitrary and discriminatory manner to black defendants. On that basis, it ordered a new trial.

Willie Ross was convicted again in 1983 on the three charges and sentenced to 20 years on the kidnapping charge and life sentences for both armed robbery and murder.

He was released on parole in December 2016, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections.

The Ross case wasn’t the last time prosecutors considered the death penalty, though. They filed a notice to seek the death penalty in a brutal quintuple homicide that took place in 2004.

They initially sought the death penalty against Jerry Johnny Thompson, one of three people who were ultimately indicted in the Nov. 8, 2004, murders of Betty Faye Watts, 50; Katrina Darlene Watts “Tina” Resendez, 29; Juan Carlos Resendez, 3; Liliana Alegria Aguilar, 30; and Jaime Cruz Resendez, 25, at their Adel Road residence.

Thompson, of Nashville, Ga., was charged in a 25-count indictment that included 10 murder counts in December 2006. Five of the counts could have carried the death penalty as the crimes were committed under statutory aggravating circumstances.

Thompson avoided the death penalty by entering guilty pleas in 2011 to five murder counts and testifying against co-defendant Alexander Woods III of Valdosta.

During Woods’ trial in 2013, Thompson testified that Jaime Cruz Resendez owed money to their Texas marijuana supplier, “Hector,” who told Thompson to go to the residence and have Resendez, who was not returning the Texas dealer’s calls, to get in contact with him.

He told jurors that he enlisted Anthony Davis, who collected from those who owed Thompson money for marijuana, and Woods to go to Resendez’ residence after arming  them with body armor, an AK-47 rifle and a “cheap 9 mm pistol.” Thompson downplayed his role, saying that he merely pointed out the location of the house to the armed men and kept driving with his girlfriend, Wilma Ann Yvonne Stover, in his truck.

He later got a call from Davis, he testified, telling him to get back to the house quickly. When he arrived he told Stover to take his truck and get away from the area. Jaime Resendez was already dead and Woods was holding a gun to Aguilar’s head demanding money.

Thompson was sentenced to life in prison, which he would serve in Georgia after serving a lengthy federal prison term of more than 20 years on a drug conviction.

Woods, convicted on 15 counts in the case, was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences, meaning that they are served back-to-back. The time they are ordered to serve means that both will serve most, if not all, of their lives in a prison cell.