Prosecutor: Man's self-defense claim 'laughable' in central Illinois family's beating deaths

PEORIA, Ill. – A prosecutor has mocked a central Illinois man's assertion that he killed a 14-year-old boy in self-defense after witnessing the teenager slaughter his own family.

Mike Atterberry said in closing arguments Thursday that Christopher Harris' claim he had to kill Dillen Constant is "laughable."

Harris is charged with first-degree murder in the 2009 beating deaths of five members of his ex-wife's family, including Dillen, at their home in Beason, 160 miles southwest of Chicago.

Atterberry says evidence presented at trial indicates Dillen was beaten as he lay on the ground outside the house and that he crawled along the floor.

Harris' brother testified that he watched in fear as Christopher Harris fatally beat the family with a tire iron.

Defense attorneys will make their closing arguments before jurors begin deliberations.