JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man on trial in the killing of a woman during an argument in an SUV last year admitted to the killing, according to interrogation video played in court Thursday.
Frederick Wade did not testify in his own defense in the shooting death of Kalil McCoy, nor did anyone else as the defense rested without calling any witnesses.
Prosecutors said Wade was arguing with the 20-year-old McCoy about her wanting her window rolled down, according to testimony presented in court.
After nearly seven hours of denying the killing during the interrogation, Wade finally admitted it.
"I was like, 'I'm sorry. I did it,'" he told investigators in the interrogation video. "She put her hand on my hand on the gun and said, 'Come on, Freddy, kill me. Come on. You're talking about it. Kill me.' And it was a red light, and when I hit the brakes, the gun shot."
The former high school football player told homicide detectives it was an accident.
"I looked and the light was red, so I hit the brakes, and when I hit the brakes she was shot. And I was like, 'No.'"
Detectives said suspects often say killings were accident because they're scared.
Wade said his friends in the backseat told him to take McCoy to the hospital, but Wade said he had a baby on the way and couldn't go to jail.
So they hid her body in the woods of a Talleyrand neighborhood and came up with a different story, prosecutors said. They decided to tell police McCoy left the Plush nightclub with different friends, prosecutors said.
They said Wade tried that story with police.
"I was like, 'Kalil, are you sure? I can take you home," Wade said in the interrogation video. "She's like, 'No, I'm OK.'"
Wade's aunt begged him for hours to tell the truth.
"It's going to be alright," Wade's aunt said in the video. "You have a lot of people who care about you, just like everybody cared about that girl who had a family that loved her. And she was too young to be killed."
Wade then finally admitted to the killing.
"When the light turned green, I just turned the corner and paused," Wade said. "And I was like, 'No, Kalil. I'm sorry. I ain't trying to do this.'"
McCoy, Wade and the three other suspects were classmates at Andrew Jackson High School, where McCoy graduated from weeks before her death.
Wade was initially charged with manslaughter until the charge was upgraded in January to second-degree murder, which carries a sentence of 25 years to life in prison, if convicted.
Closing arguments will resume Friday morning.