NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A retired Connecticut prison official has testified a man convicted of a 2007 deadly home invasion threatened to kill a prison officer in March, saying he had nothing to lose.

Frederick Levesque testified Monday as a New Haven jury is considering if Steven Hayes should get the death penalty. Hayes pleaded guilty to threatening the officer and was punished by 20 days’ loss of recreation and visitor rights.

Levesque also said Hayes would have limited contact with the general prison population if he gets a life sentence.

Retired state prisons commissioner Theresa Lantz testified earlier Hayes was kept on 24-hour observation because of concerns he could harm himself. His co-defendant, Joshua Komisarjevsky, was not.

Hayes was convicted earlier this month of killing a woman and her daughters in Cheshire.