Prosecutors to pursue death penalty in quadruple murder of abandoned Tennessee baby’s family

By Chris Boyette, CNN

(CNN) — Prosecutors plan to seek the execution of a man accused of shooting and killing four members of a family in rural Tennessee, including the parents of an infant found abandoned under the summer sun miles away, the district attorney said in court Thursday.

Austin Robert Drummond, captured Tuesday after a week-long manhunt, sat handcuffed in a black-and-white-striped prison uniform appearing by video feed from jail for his arraignment in a Tiptonville, Tennessee, courthouse on four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, four counts of felon in possession of a firearm and one count of possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony.

Drummond showed no expression as Lake County General Sessions Judge Andrew T. Cook read the charges to him.

“At this time, the state intends to seek the death penalty,” District Attorney Danny Goodman told the judge.

Cook entered a not guilty plea on Drummond’s behalf because he didn’t yet have an attorney, and appointed attorney Bryan Huffman to represent him at his next hearing scheduled for August 14. CNN has reached out to Huffman for comment.

Cook ordered Drummond, 28, held without bond because, he said, state law allows him to deny bond in capital cases and because “first and foremost, it’s the court’s responsibility to take into consideration the safety posed to the community.”

Drummond was remanded to the custody of the Lake County Sheriff’s Department.

Four dead and an infant abandoned

Drummond is a convicted felon with alleged ties to a violent street gang who was out on bail – which was revoked at Thursday’s court hearing – on an attempted murder charge relating to time he spent in prison. He is charged with the murders of James M. Wilson, 21; Adrianna Williams, 20; Cortney Rose, 38; and Braydon Williams, 15.

The victims were found July 29 in Tiptonville, a town in northwest Tennessee’s Lake County, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said.

The four were found hours after the seven-month-old daughter of Wilson and Adrianna Williams – identified only by the initials W.W. – had been found abandoned in a car seat in a “random” front yard near the Dyer County community of Tigrett, nearly 40 miles southeast of Tiptonville and about 40 miles northwest of Jackson, authorities said.

Rose was the baby’s maternal grandmother, and Braydon Williams was the baby’s maternal uncle, according to Goodman.

Drummond’s girlfriend was Rose’s sister, according to Goodman, and she served as a corrections officer when and where Drummond was in prison for aggravated robbery, CNN affiliate WHBQ reported, citing the state corrections department.

But authorities have not released any court documents or details identifying a motive for the killings or any other information about how they identified Drummond as a suspect.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.