PROBATION OFFICER SAYS SHE DIDN'T KNOW DELONG WAS INFORMANT

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Richard DeLong's probation officer testified Monday
that she never knew DeLong was working as a police informant and wouldn't
have allowed it had she known.

DeLong, 37, of Joplin, has been convicted of five counts of first-degree
murder for killing Erin Vanderhoef, her unborn baby and three children.
Jurors are weighing whether to sentence him to the death penalty or life in
prison.

DeLong's attorneys have said their client lived as a police informant from
1993 to 1999, supplying drug information to police while he used
methamphetamine himself.

Defense attorneys claim DeLong was kept out of prison by police and
prosecutors who wanted his information.

Probation officer Kathleen Faddis testified Monday that she has never given
a client permission to work as a confidential informant.

She said probation officials don't want probationers to be in the criminal
community getting information or buying drugs for police.

Police Sgt. Troy Smith, who used DeLong as an informant, testified that
officers aren't responsible for the well-being of informants. He also said
he didn't know at the time that DeLong was on probation.

Public defender Cynthia Short has said testimony this week is intended to
humanize DeLong.

Prosecutors have said that DeLong was involved in a love triangle with
girlfriend Stacie Leffingwell and Vanderhoef.

DeLong had decided to marry Leffingwell after learning that she was
terminally ill with AIDS, but Vanderhoef wanted to continue their
relationship and wouldn't leave them alone. So DeLong and Leffingwell,
along with co-defendant Harold "Bobby" Lingle, plotted to kill Vanderhoef
and her children, Green County Prosecutor Darrell Moore has said.