Man confessed to killing five people after days-long meth bender, police say

A man who confessed to gunning down five people inside a South Carolina home amid a meth-induced craze was arrested in Georgia, police said.

James Drayton was taken into custody in Burke County on Monday after he carried out an armed robbery at a convenience store and then fled in a stolen car, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told reporters Tuesday. Authorities gave chase, ultimately catching him when he lost control of the vehicle and crashed.

The 23-year-old suspect is also accused of killing five people at a house in Inman, some 150 miles away from the scene of the robbery, just north of Waynesboro. He’d lived at the residence for about two weeks, Wright said.

During a subsequent interview with law enforcement, Drayton confessed to murdering five of the people he’d been living with. He told investigators he had not slept for nearly five days and that he was high on methamphetamine at the time.

Wright said Drayton also provided additional details specific to the crime scene.

The bodies of four people were found inside the Inman residence Sunday night. A fifth person wounded in the violence was transported to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, where he died during surgery a short time later.

“I don’t have answers as to why. He said some things in his interviews that I’m going to hold on to because his attorney probably needs to process some of this stuff,” Wright said. “It’s awful.”

The victims were identified as Roman Christean Megael Rocha, 19, Thomas Ellis Anderson, 37, Adam Daniel Morley, 32, Mark Allen Hewitt, 59 and James Derek Baldwin, 49, according to WYFF 4.

Drayton is facing five counts of murder and four counts of possession of a weapon during a violent crime.