Fired police officer indicted for murder of pregnant girlfriend

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — A former Alabama police officer has been indicted in connection to the shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend nearly 15 months ago, prosecutors said.

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David Michael McCoy, 29, of Huntsville, is charged with three counts of capital murder in the Jan. 7, 2022, death of Courtney Spraggins, 26, of Trion, Georgia, WHNT-TV reported. The indictment against McCoy, a former officer with the Huntsville Police Department, was dated March 24, according to the television station.

The first count was for the death of Spraggins, while the second was for the alleged killing of Spraggins and her unborn child. The third count was for killing a child under 14, which in this case was the unborn child. Spraggins was seven months pregnant with McCoy’s daughter at the time of her death, her family said.

Prosecutors last year said they would seek the death penalty in the case, AL.com reported.

McCoy is accused of shooting Spraggins as she sat in a vehicle in the parking lot of a Huntsville apartment complex, according to the news outlet.

According to testimony during McCoy’s preliminary hearing, Spraggins came to the Weston Ranch Apartments because she planned to move to Huntsville, WHNT reported. McCoy was living with another woman at the time, according to testimony at the time.

According to WAAY-TV, McCoy was engaged to the woman in Huntsville and had taken engagement photos with her in the fall of 2021. There was no indication that Spraggins knew about McCoy’s fiancée.

Investigators said Spraggins quit her job and arrived in Huntsville on Dec. 17, 2021, to move in with McCoy. However, he told her that he “needed more time,” WHNT reported. Spraggins then drove from Huntsville to Maryland to move in with her parents, according to the television station.

She allegedly described a text message exchange between her and McCoy in December 2021, when Spraggins asked him what she was supposed to do.

“A bullet to the head sounds good to me,” McCoy allegedly responded, according to WHNT.

The relationship, which began after the two met on an online dating site, involved an initial pregnancy, but Spraggins suffered a miscarriage, the television station reported.

McCoy allegedly told Spraggins to return to Alabama and she arrived at the complex at 8:04 a.m. on Jan. 7, 2022, according to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Special Agent Brittany Hayes.

Spraggins was dead within three hours.

Kimberley Walter said her daughter was trained as a certified nursing assistant but said her last job was at a North Carolina animal clinic. Her last day there was on Dec. 14, 2021.

“When I heard, I was heartbroken,” Spraggins’ former boss, Angie Boatwright, told WAAY from Carthage Animal Hospital. “I immediately started crying. I just can’t imagine … how could anybody want to hurt her?

“She was excited to be moving down there with him, and she only spoke good things about him and the situation. You never heard anything bad.”

A hearing in the case is set for Tuesday, according to WHNT.