A serial killer, linked to the deaths of three women in Daytona Beach, was unable to attend a court hearing on Friday because of the coronavirus.
It was through Zoom that Robert Hayes kept his court date at the hearing in Volusia County, either because he had been exposed or infected with the coronavirus.
Hayes is accused of the deaths of three women whose bodies were found in remote areas around Daytona Beach between 2006 and 2006, according to the local police.
The accused was captured in 2019 after he murdered another person in South Florida.
Investigators say DNA from that case linked Hayes to the murders of Laquetta Gunter, Julie Green and Iwanna Patton.
Police said women were fatally shot when they got into a car with a stranger and their bodies were dumped in an isolated area.
Hayes was a student at Bethune-Cookman University at the time of the murders.
At Friday’s hearing, in which Hayes appeared virtually, the judge granted a motion not to discuss the defendant’s employment at a restaurant and granted another motion that would not allow anything related to his Facebook account to be used during the trial unless relevant.
Also denied a motion regarding a toxicology report for one of the victims, allowing the report to be presented during trial.
Furthermore, ruled that during the trial will not use the words “serial killer” or “serial murder.”
Hayes’ arrest occurred in 2016 in Palm Beach County for a fee of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Rachel Elizabeth Bey, who was found strangled and sexually assaulted on the side of a road that same year, according to authorities.
At time of arrest , officials said that they were working to connect Hayes to the deaths of Laquetta Gunter, Julie Green and Iwana Patton, who were shot to death a decade earlier.
There is faces three counts of first degree murder. The trial is scheduled to begin on February 7 and he could face the death penalty.
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