Accused killer of Peach deputies all but confessed to GBI agent at hospital
From a hospital bed in the days after he allegedly gunned down two Peach County sheriff's deputies, Ralph Elrod Jr. told a GBI agent things that Elrod's defense attorneys probably wish he hadn't.
At a hearing in Peach Superior Court on Monday, those lawyers sought to have Elrod's remarks deemed inadmissible, but chances are that a jury will hear his videotaped statements when the case goes to trial sometime next year.
Elrod, who had been wounded in November 2016 in an armed confrontation with police who'd rushed to the aid of the fallen deputies on the outskirts of Byron, agreed to speak with the agent after his rights were read to him. Elrod, 59, charged with multiple counts of murder, could face the death penalty if convicted.
The agent asked Elrod what had prompted the deadly clash and Elrod, his voice raspy, seemed coherent enough.
Elrod’s lawyers, however, countered that their client was “under physical duress” and that his remarks to the GBI agent should be suppressed.
Deputies Daryl Smallwood and Patrick Sondron were shot to death when they went to Elrod’s house on Hardison Road answering a complaint about Elrod from some of his neighbors.
Authorities have said that Elrod, an electrician by trade, opened fire on the deputies without provocation. Elrod was later shot and wounded when police rushed to the scene after Smallwood and Sondron were shot.
At the hospital in the days after the bloodshed, Elrod is said to have asked the agent, “Did I kill those officers?”
Asked by the agent why he shot the two deputies, Elrod cited a running feud with his neighbors about them riding four-wheelers on or near his property. He was accused of threatening to kill the neighbors.
“I don’t know. … It happened so quick,” Elrod told the GBI agent in the hospital when asked what had prompted the shooting. “I just didn’t want to go to jail … over this bull crap.”
Elrod went on to say he had hoped the police rushing to the scene would shoot him, that he had begun shooting toward the coming police and was “trying to draw fire.”
Elrod later added: “I’m so sorry. … I’m so sorry.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2018 at 2:51 PM with the headline "Accused killer of Peach deputies all but confessed to GBI agent at hospital."