A central Missouri police officer has testified in court how he handled a man who was both a triple-murderer and a police informant.

A highway patrol sergeant says one thing he did was suggest the suspect move to keep from being killed himself.  .

The Columbia Daily Tribune reports 26-year-old Joshua Maylee from Holts Summit had acted as a confidential informant until six weeks before the triple killings.

Maylee is set to be tried in September on three counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree assault.

Two of the victims, Eugene Pinet and Jeffrey Werdehausen, were allegedly involved in a rural theft ring with Maylee. He’s accused of killing Pinet and his wife, Jackie, at their Holts Summit home and Werdehausen at his Callaway County home.

He’s also charged with attempting to kill Werdehausen’s wife, Gina.

- Bob Hamilton, KMOX News