Cook refuses legal counsel

Gregory Alvin Cook

“He made every effort to waive his attorney,” Union County District Attorney Tim Thompson said today.

Cook is charged with aggravated murder in the death of Shannon Marie McKillop McKillop and aggravated murder in the deaths of Frank Scaramuzzi and Jeremiah Johnston. Aggravated murder carries a possible death penalty.

During his arraignment Thursday before Judge Phillip Mendiguren, Cook denied being insane or suicidal. He pointed out that he has cooperated with investigators and led them to evidence.

“He basically said he knows what he’s doing and wants to put all this behind him,” Thompson said.

Mendiguren advised Cook that he has a constitutional right to an attorney. The judge read, line-by-line, a waiver of counsel form that explains a defendant’s rights, the benefits of counsel and the disadvantages of not having counsel.

Mendiguren also appointed Ken Hadley, a former Baker County district attorney who is qualified to represent people in death penalty cases, to the case. Cook said he would not talk to Hadley or any lawyer.

The purpose of an arraignment is to make sure a defendant understands the charges against him, and his rights including the right to an attorney and a preliminary hearing. Pleas are not accepted during arraignments.

Thompson said a date for a return to court will be set later. Cook is being held in the Union County Jail without bail.

McKillop’s dismembered body was found July 24 in and near a pond on Pumpkin Ridge Road in Elgin. The bodies of Scaramuzzi and Johnston were recovered Saturday from a wooded area off Darr Road north of Elgin.

McKillop, 51, Scaramuzzi, 50, Johnston, 28, and Cook, 42, were known associates. In a recent press conference, Union County District Attorney Tim Thompson said they were seen together at the same time and location shortly before the murders are supposed to have occurred.

Thompson said investigators believe Scaramuzzi and Johnston were killed together at the same location.

Those killings occurred separately from but very close in time to the McKillop homicide, Thompson said.

Following his arrest, Cook told KING-TV that he did the killings and was sorry. In brief remarks outside the Union County jail Wednesday, he again admitted to the slayings.

He said he killed McKillop after an argument, then killed Scaramuzzi and Johnston because they were witnesses.

He said he was high on methamphetamine when he did the murders.