A man from Tennessee, accused of murdering four family members and leaving a baby in a stranger’s yard, insists on his innocence, stating he was acting as a confidential informant for law enforcement at the time of the murders.

28-year-old Austin Robert Drummond is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of aggravated kidnapping, and several weapons offenses. The victims, Adrianna Williams, James Matthew Wilson, Cortney Rose, and Braydon Williams, were found dead in a rural area of Lake County, Tennessee, in late July.

Before the bodies were discovered, Adrianna and Wilson’s baby was found safe, still in a car seat, in the front yard of a home in Dyer County. The other victims were the baby’s grandmother and uncle.

Drummond — who was dating Rose’s sister — was taken into custody on August 5 after a statewide manhunt. 

He recently spoke out about the charges against him in a jailhouse interview with Nashville station WTVF.

“I had absolutely no reason to harm these people,” Drummond said. “They were my girlfriend’s family, and they had become like family to me. I was the one who took Adrianna to the hospital to have her baby. I helped teach Braydon to drive, and Matthew was like a brother to me.”

Austin Robert Drummond claims to be confidential informant

Drummond told WTFV that at the time of the killings, he was an undercover confidential informant working with law enforcement agencies.

He stated that after being arrested earlier this year, he reached an agreement with the Lake County District Attorney, FBI, and ATF to work as a confidential informant.

“During my time working for them I helped them uncover drug dealers selling multiple kilos of cocaine, also drug traffickers delivering pounds of meth,” he told the news outlet from jail. “We identified dirty law enforcement and correctional personnel and tapped Vice Lord leadership phones.”

Drummond, who has a previous criminal record, admitted to once being a member of the prison gang Vice Lords.

He insisted, however, that he did not kill the four victims and told the TV station that he learned that his cover as a confidential informant had been blown the day of the killings.

“I’m not an innocent man, but I’m not guilty of what they’ve charged me with,” Drummond told the station, adding that he went on the run because he was scared.

“I was afraid, because I know bad things happened, um, and I was afraid that because I was an informant, things would go wrong. Things would happen to me,” he continued.

WTFV reported that Drummond said that he was involved in some way with the killings, but he didn’t explain how.

Austin Drummond was dating Cortney Rose’s sister

Before his most recent arrest, Drummond served time behind bars for aggravated robbery and received additional time for threatening the robbery victim and jury in his 2014 case, CNN reports. 

He had been out on bond on an attempted murder charge in connection with an alleged incident that occurred in prison at the time of the killings. 

Lake County District Attorney Danny Goodman Jr. told on Friday that he couldn’t comment on Drummond’s claims that he had worked as a confidential informant.

However, he did confirm that Drummond was dating Rose’s sister, who he said was pregnant.

“He did have a relationship with all four victims,” Goodman added.

Although Goodman did not identify Rose’s sister by name, Tennessee station WHBQ has identified her as Kaitlyn Speed and reported that she had been working as a corrections officer in the Northwest Correctional Complex while Drummond has previously been incarcerated there.