Prosecutors in South Carolina want to seek the death penalty in the trial of a man accused of five counts of murder

SPARTANBURG, SC — South Carolina prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for a man who was arrested nearly two years ago and accused of shooting five people.

The 7th District Court District Attorney's Office filed a motion last week expressing its plans to seek the death penalty for 26-year-old James Douglas Drayton, news outlets reported. The district attorney's office declined to comment on the decision. A trial date has not yet been set.

Drayton was arrested in October 2022 and charged with five counts of murder and five counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime. The victims were found in a home in Inman, about 13 miles northwest of Spartanburg. Four of them were dead at the scene: Thomas Ellis Anderson, 37; James Derek Baldwin, 49; Mark Allen Hewitt, 59; and Adam Daniel Morley, 32. The fifth person shot, Roman Christean Megael Rocha, 19, later died at a hospital.

Drayton's attorney, public defender Michael David Morin, declined to comment, citing ongoing proceedings.

At the time of Drayton's arrest, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said Drayton confessed to the murders and told police he was under the influence of methamphetamine and had not slept in four days. Drayton turned over the gun he allegedly used to kill everyone in the house where he also lived. Wright said people frequently went there to do drugs.

Drayton was arrested in Georgia after a crash during a chase. He was driving a car stolen from the Inmans' home, Wright said in 2022. Officials in Burke County, Georgia, about 145 miles away, said they pursued Drayton after he attempted to rob a convenience store at gunpoint and kidnap an employee.

South Carolina is one of 27 states that allows the death penalty, but has not carried out an execution since 2011. A recent ruling by the South Carolina Supreme Court upholding the use of firing squads, lethal injection and the electric chair opened the door for a resumption of executions in the state.