A Tennessee man The man accused of killing four members of the same family and kidnapping a child before eluding authorities for a week is scheduled to appear on Monday for the first time in court since he was indicted.
Austin Robert Drummond He is expected to appear before a judge for arraignment in the afternoon in circuit court in Lake County, located in rural northwest Tennessee.
A grand jury indicted Drummond on Nov. 10 on charges including first-degree murder and aggravated kidnapping in the July 29 shooting. Drummond pleaded not guilty in lower court before a judge Ruling that there is sufficient evidence To refer his case to the grand jury.
Drummond is accused in the deaths of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant who was found abandoned in the front yard of a home in rural west Tennessee. A Search for a week Drummond’s case ended on August 5 in Jackson, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southeast of the site of the Tiptonville killings.
Prosecutors said they Plan to demand the death penalty If Drummond is convicted of first-degree murder at trial.
An FBI agent testified at a hearing in September that data from the cellphone Drummond used showed he was in the vicinity of a wooded area where the bodies were found with gunshot wounds and covered in a tarp.
But Drummond’s attorney, Brian Hoffman, said there was no evidence presented during the hearing showing that Drummond actually shot any of the victims.
On the day of the shooting, officers responded to a call of an infant in a car seat being dropped off in a “random individual’s front yard” about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Tiptonville, the Dyer County Sheriff’s Office said.
Then investigators in neighboring Lake County reported that four people had been found dead of gunshot wounds in Tiptonville. The child’s parents have been identified as James M. Wilson, 21, and Adriana Williams, 20; Williams’ brother, Braydon Williams, 15; and their mother, Courtney Rose, 38.
Drummond’s girlfriend is the sister of the infant’s grandmother, according to Lake County District Attorney Danny Goodman.
In everything, Five people They were accused of being accessories after the fact to the case.
Drummond served prison time for robbing a convenience store and threatening to prosecute jurors. He was also charged with trying to kill a prison guard while behind bars, and was out on bail at the time of the murders, Goodman said.
Tiptonville has a population of about 3,400 and is located about 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of Memphis, near the Mississippi River and scenic Reelfoot Lake.