MOULTRIE, Ga. — Attorneys in a capital murder case continued wrangling on Tuesday over part of a statement given to police in the days following the 2016 quintuple homicide on Rossman Dairy Road.

Defense attorneys are seeking to have a judge rule as inadmissible about 30 minutes of an interview with Jeffrey Alan Peacock. They argued that a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent used improper interrogation techniques during the session with Peacock.

During Tuesday afternoon’s hearing at the Colquitt County Courthouse Annex Dr. Gregory DeClue, a clinical psychologist who prepared a report on the interview for the Georgia Capital Defender’s Office attorneys representing Peacock, referred to methods used as unsound and the type of “pop psychology” one might see on a television talk show.

Peacock, 27, has been indicted on five murder counts and arson in connection with the May 15, 2016, slayings of five residents at 505 Rossman Dairy Road and fire that destroyed the house.

Specifically, DeClue objected to portions of the audio he was given of the interview in which a GBI agent suggested to Peacock that “bad dope” may have caused him to do “something you don’t want to think about” and a section in which the agent asked Peacock to “imagine himself killing all of the deceased people.”

“The suspect agreed to go down this walk (imagining) and to answer questions,” DeClue told the court. “And the suspect was saying things like, “I can see this but I don’t remember it.”

That type of questioning is not standard for virtually any law enforcement agency, DeClue said, and is “not reliable.”

“If you use a lousy technique to get evidence, you’re going to get unreliable evidence,” he said.

Peacock had mentioned during the interview that he felt strange the day of the interview because it was the first day he had started taking the prescription antidepressant Zoloft, according to accounts given in court describing the statement.

Defense attorney Allan Sincox told Superior Court Judge James E. Hardy that Peacock had told police he had no memory of committing the crimes. Peacock agreed to imagine that he had done them, at the behest of the GBI agent, but during the interview said that he had no memory of the events even after that mental exercise, Sincox said.

Peacock spoke with investigators over seven hours during the interview.

Assistant District Attorney Jim Prine said Peacock first broached the drug issue and having a “sight image” which allowed the GBI investigator to delve deeper into those topics.

“I say it’s just a flow in the conversation,” Prine said. “I think it’s a question for a jury to consider.”

Hardy gave defense attorneys 10 days to amend their prior motion to exclude portions of the interview and scheduled the next status update in the case for March 29.