Quadruple murder suspect Austin Drummond appears in court for pretrial motions

LAKE COUNTY, Tenn. — A man accused of a quadruple murder appeared in Lake County Circuit Court for a hearing on a change of venue and other pretrial motions.

Austin Drummond is accused of killing Cortney Rose, Adrianna Williams, Braydon Williams and James Wilson.

Several motions are pending, including a possible change of venue, a mental evaluation order and restrictions on how Drummond can access discovery documents.

Discovery access challenges

Bryan Huffman, Drummond’s defense attorney, said the case is about to pick up speed.

“A lot of work. It’s been slow because we are getting all of the discovery and going through discovery just takes time. Now that we have a lot of the discovery things are going to start moving a lot faster,” Huffman said.

Huffman said he has had difficulty relaying discovery to Drummond, who is being held at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution while being segregated from other inmates.

“It is very difficult because a lot of the discovery is video and there is a lot of paper discovery as well, so we can not pass that to him. We can only show him the video through the glass, so it is difficult to meet with him in person,” Huffman said.

The restriction for Drummond to receive copies of the discovery will be taken up May 1. Judge Mark Hayes cited concern of the documents ending up on social media.

Venue change and jury questionnaire

A change of venue was also discussed and will be taken up May 1. Huffman said they are looking at moving the case to a larger venue like Shelby County.

Huffman filed a motion to have a jury questionnaire even with a possible change of venue. Huffman said Drummond is coping with the situation.

“He’s disheartened because of where he is at and the conditions he is being housed under. I think he understand the seriousness of the situation and he is coping as best as he can under the circumstance that he is in,” Huffman said.

An order for a mental evaluation is also planned. All motions filed before April 15 will be heard May 1.

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