Topeka ? A former Missouri man convicted of killing four family members in Kansas says he’s broke and needs court-appointed attorneys.

James Kraig Kahler is specifically asking an Osage County judge to appoint the attorneys who represented him at his trial to continue to serve on his case.

The 48-year-old Meriden man was convicted in August of killing his wife, two daughters and his wife’s grandmother at a Burlingame home in November 2009. The jury then recommended he receive the death penalty.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that court records say the cost of the trial and a trust fund for his 12-year-old son, Sean, have drained Kahler’s funds.

Kahler, a former city utilities director in Weatherford, Texas, and Columbia, Mo., will be sentenced Oct. 11.