Ex-girlfriend: Suspect normal after beating deaths

[May 18, 2013]  PEORIA (AP) -- A former girlfriend of a man accused in the beating deaths of five people in central Illinois says he had a blister on one hand but otherwise acted normally the day after the killings.

Kristy Moore testified Friday that Christopher Harris said the blister came from trimming trees.

Harris is charged with beating his former in-laws to death with a tire iron in September 2009. Rick and Ruth Gee and three of their children were found dead in their home in Beason, 160 miles southwest of Chicago.

Harris' brother, Jason Harris, has said Moore is among several women Harris tried unsuccessfully to have sex with the night the brothers wound up at the Gees' property.

Jason Harris testified that he watched his brother beat one of the children.

[Associated Press]

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