MOULTRIE, Ga. — After a full morning of witnesses and legal arguments a judge in a quintuple slaying case ruled that evidence collected from the suspect’s truck can be used at his trial.

An attorney representing Jeffrey Alan Peacock sought to have a search of the defendant’s truck declared illegal and for the suppression of any potentially incriminating material turned up during that search.

Prior to issuing his decision on the issue, Colquitt County Superior Court Judge James E. Hardy heard testimony given by investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Colquitt County Sheriff’s Office.

That testimony came during a Friday pre-trial hearing on motions filed by attorneys representing Peacock in his capital murder case. Peacock, 26, is accused of killing four men and a woman on May 15, 2016, at their 505 Rossman Road residence and then setting the house on fire. Each had been shot in the head, according to court filings in the case.

No trial date has been set in the slaying of Jonathan Garrett Edwards, Ramsey Jones Pidcock and Aaron Reid Williams, all 21; 20-year-old Alicia Brooke Norman; and Jordan Shane Croft, 22.

Gerald T. Word, director of the Georgia Capital Defender’s Office, argued that the distance of Peacock’s truck was too great for it to be considered part of the crime scene.

At the time an investigator spoke with Peacock at the truck the day of the slayings it was parked near or partially within a nearby pecan orchard, according to testimony given on Friday by investigators.

Peacock reportedly told officers that he had spent the previous night at the residence and that he left at about 7 or 7:30 a.m. after everyone was awake to get breakfast and purchase cigarettes. He returned to find the house on fire, and he was one of the first to call Colquitt County 911 to report the blaze. 

Peacock was allowed to leave the scene but police did not let him remove his truck.

Bahan Rich, a GBI agent who was working at the agency’s Thomasville office at the time, told Hardy that he wrote a search warrant out by hand at the scene on the hood of his car and took it to Colquitt County Magistrate Court Judge J.J. McMillan, who signed the document. Due to the chaotic scene responders encountered, Rich said that he thought that time was of the essence.

The search warrant requested permission to search the residence, premises and six vehicles parked there.

Rich said that he was referring to the cars of the five victims, which had suffered damage due to being parked close to the house, and Peacock’s. Evidence relevant to the case was found in all six.

“At the time there were so many unknowns,” Rich said of his efforts to quickly obtain the warrant. “We had five dead. The range (of possibilities) ranged from a terrible accident to we had someone out there who had killed five people. We didn’t know at the time if there were more victims in the residence or on the premises or in vehicles.”

He noted that investigators found a burned “long gun” near one of the victims and a spent .45-caliber shell and three spent shotgun shells in a room where two other victims were located in the house.

Gerald T. Word, director of the Georgia Capital Defender’s Office and one of two attorneys representing Peacock, questioned why Rich mentioned only the victims’ five damaged cars in an accompanying affidavit.

Rich responded that the warrant referred to all of the vehicles that were part of the crime scene, as taped off by officers. It did not, he said, refer to the numerous emergency vehicles at the scene at the time.

Items found in the truck at the scene were used, in part, in requests for three subsequent warrants, including at Peacock’s father’s residence near Norman Park.

GBI agent Jason Seacrist, who is assigned to the Thomasville office, testified that Peacock’s truck was under 24-hour guard by deputies until it was taken to Thomasville for a more thorough search.

Responding to a question from Word, Seacrist said that among the evidence located in the truck were a pair of shorts and ABAC T-shirt with apparent blood stains on them and the book “Encyclopedia of Serial Killers.”

Defense attorneys also have requested to have the trial moved to another county based on pre-trial publicity surrounding the case.

 In giving his decision, Hardy said it was reasonable to conclude that the search warrant did not refer to fire trucks and police cars that were at the scene where responders were fighting a fierce blaze and eventually discovered the grisly scene of five bodies inside the house.

He also noted that Peacock had moved his truck to the pecan orchard after deputies arrived, based on photos taken at the time showing it parked closer to the house.

“The original location of the vehicle looks to be certainly within the area where somebody would park,” he said.

At that time while police were sorting things out Peacock could have been considered a victim, Hardy said, apparently referring to the deaths of his five friends in the house.

“The court finds, based on what I heard, the officer was trying to search the applicable vehicles,” not to include emergency response vehicles, he said. “The court finds they were all valid search warrants.”

On Aug. 24 Hardy is scheduled to hear arguments on a defense request to toss out statements made by Peacock to investigators and question whether permission to allow police to take a sample of his blood and to examine his cell phone was given willingly.