LINCOLN (AP) — The attorney for a central Illinois man accused of killing a Beason couple and their three children admits his client killed the family's 14-year-old son but says the teen killed the other family members.

Attorney Dan Fultz said during a court hearing Wednesday in Lincoln that Christopher Harris walked into the family's home during Dillen Constant's killing spree. Harris killed Constant in self-defense, the attorney claimed.

Harris is accused along with his brother, Jason Harris, of using a tire iron to kill Ruth and Rick Gee and three of the couple's children in 2009. They're also charged with attempted murder for an attack on the Gees' then 3-year-old daughter. Beason is about 40 miles northeast of Springfield and is home to only a few hundred people.