Drayton, 28, entered his guilty plea in the case tied to five men authorities said were killed inside a home frequented by drug users in Spartanburg County, according to Solicitor Barry Barnette. On Friday, a court imposed life without parole after the plea deal that avoided the death penalty, Barnette said in a statement.
Authorities said the killings occurred after Drayton was high on methamphetamine and had not slept for days. In the agreement and subsequent proceedings, prosecutors described Drayton as admitting he shot the men at close range, with some of the victims still asleep when he pulled the trigger, Barnette said.
In Barnette’s account, Drayton did not provide prosecutors a motive for the murders. Barnette said Drayton told investigators he was high and had not slept for four days when he killed everyone in the home where he was staying.
Barnette said the sentence consisted of life terms for five counts of murder, and he said the terms do not allow release on parole. Barnette also said Drayton told prosecutors he would not appeal.
Investigators tied Drayton to the case after his arrest the next day following a police chase in Burke County, Georgia, about 145 miles (233 kilometers) away from the South Carolina home, authorities said. Prosecutors said Drayton was driving one of the victim’s cars and had the gun used in the deaths.
At the time of the sentencing, family members of the victims supported the plea deal and life sentence and told Drayton in court how he ruined their lives, prosecutors said. Former Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said at the time that the victims were still “somebody’s son, brother, friend, dad,” adding, “They are all a child of God — they didn’t deserve what they got.”
Prosecutors identified the five men killed as Thomas Wayne Ellis Anderson, 37; James Derrick Baldwin, 49; Mark Allan Hewitt, 59; Adam Daniel Morley, 32; and Roman Christean Megael Rocha, 19.