MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Two more people have been charged with helping a Tennessee man evade authorities after he was accused of fatally shooting four people, investigators said Wednesday.
Eric Wise Jr., 26, and Michell Ovelis, 31, were indicted Tuesday by a grand jury on charges of being accessories after the fact in the late July killings and were booked into the Madison County Jail, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release.
Details of how authorities suspect they helped Austin Robert Drummond as authorities searched for him were not released by the TBI. Online jail records did not show booking information for Wise or Ovelis, and a court clerk said records did not show if the pair had lawyers Wednesday.
Drummond has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant found abandoned in a home’s front yard. A weeklong search for Drummond ended Aug. 5 in Jackson, about 70 miles (115 kilometers) southeast of the location of the killings in Tiptonville.
Prosecutors have said they plan to seek the death penalty if Drummond is convicted of first-degree murder at trial. Drummond’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday in Lake County.