COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A former South Carolina police officer has pleaded guilty to killing his neighbor after investigators found a trove of physical evidence linking him to the crime, including bloodstained clothing and a funeral flyer in his house with “RIP Oscar”. and “you should love your neighbor” written on it, authorities said.

Justin Rawlins Moody, 43, was sentenced Monday to 34 years in prison after pleading guilty to murder shortly before his trial began in Greenwood County, attorney David Stumbo said in a statement.

The girlfriend of Oscar Rubio, 48, found him dead in his Ware Shoals home in May 2023, shot in the head and chest, deputies said.

Neighbors told officers who responded to the shooting that Rubio and Moody had recently argued and said Moody had borrowed money from his neighbor in the past. Moody refused to come out of his house for the deputies until the one he knew arrived.

When Moody spoke to investigators, he said he did not kill Rubio, but knew an extraordinary amount of information about what happened, Stumbo said.

The officers then asked him how he knew so much and Moody “claimed to be God and could hear other people’s thoughts,” Stumbo said.

Officers found the gun used to kill Rubio in Moody’s bedroom, blood splattered on pants hanging from a kitchen chair, boots in Moody’s home that matched a distinct fingerprint in the blood on the victim, thousands of dollars in cash belonging to Rubio and the keys to his vehicle – as well as the funeral flyer with “RIP Oscar” and “you should love your neighbor” written on it, prosecutors said.

Moody worked as a law enforcement officer for at least six different South Carolina agencies starting in 2006, according to South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy records.

He worked for four years in Laurens County, one year in Greenville County and nearly three years in Richland County during two stints before leaving law enforcement for good in October 2018, according to his records.

None of the agencies reported that Moody had been fired or said he should not be hired elsewhere, records show, although one agency was upset that he left after less than five months and agreed a job in another agency.