A Smyrna man is being held without bond after he allegedly confessed to a friend and sheriff’s deputies that he shot and killed a Carroll County couple in their home on Peek Drive Wednesday.

Daniel Buckner, 27, was arrested Wednesday night and charged with two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of John Wahl, 48, and his partner Beth Allen Jackson, 43, inside the couple’s home at 45 Peek Drive near Carrollton.

Carroll County Magistrate Court Judge Alton Johnson denied bond during a hearing Thursday afternoon.

Carroll County Sheriff Terry Langley said Atlanta police officers contacted the Sheriff’s Office around 8 p.m. after a friend Buckner was visiting on Stonewall Road in Atlanta called 911 when Buckner allegedly began describing how he killed the couple only hours before.

When Atlanta police arrived at the house on Stonewall Road, authorities said they found Buckner sitting in an Oldsmobile sedan parked at the residence. Investigators learned that the vehicle belonged to the Carroll County couple.

Police reported finding a .38-caliber handgun inside the vehicle.

Langley said Buckner admitted to killing the couple, first to Atlanta police and later to sheriff’s deputies when they arrived at the home on Stonewall Road.

Langley said when deputies had earlier been sent to the Peek Drive residence after no one answered, they found the house in disarray. Deputies were told by someone in the area that someone had left the house around 3 p.m. Wednesday.

Langley said deputies found the bodies of Wahl and Jackson in the living room and kitchen area of the house. Authorities said multiple shots had been fired.

Langley said it was unclear what the relationship was between Buckner and the couple. Investigators have learned that Buckner was a frequent visitor at the Peek Drive residence. Deputies described the subdivision where Wahl and Jackson lived in Peek Squire Estates as a quiet, established neighborhood. This was the first time deputies have been sent to the neighborhood on a report of a crime of this magnitude, said sheriff’s Chief Deputy Brad Robinson.

Langley said at this point in the investigation, the motive remains unclear.

“We believe there is a lot of investigative work that still needs to be done,” Langley said. “I do feel that we have the person responsible for the crime, and that he acted alone.”

During Buckner’s first appearance hearing Thursday, he appeared calm, wearing a county-issued orange jump suit and shackles as he stood next to his attorney, Public Defender Shikera Turner.

As Judge Johnson read the warrants issued for his arrest in court and asked Buckner if he understood the charges, and that they carry a maximum sentence up to the death penalty or life in prison, he answered “yes sir.”

Buckner told the judge that he had completed up to ninth grade in school and has a GED.

Johnson said a preliminary hearing on the case will be held on July 9, and the case could go before a Carroll County grand jury in October for a possible indictment.

Deputies said more charges, in addition to the two counts of murder, are pending.

This was not the first time Buckner has been in trouble with the law. Langley said the suspect has an extensive criminal history, although this is the first time he has been in the Carroll County jail.

Buckner was also wanted on a warrant issued by the Cobb County Sheriff’s Office for several charges, including child molestation.

At the time of his arrest, according to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Buckner was on parole after having been released from Wilcox State Prison in South Georgia on Jan. 11, 2008. He has been convicted of numerous offenses since 1998, including first degree forgery, simple battery, terroristic threats and acts, possession of methamphetamine, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana, theft by receiving stolen property and fraudulent use of a credit card in Cobb and Cherokee counties.