Jurors in the Michael Scott murder trial listened to more testimony about Scott's interrogation.
The hours of police questioning, Sept. 10, 1999, were recorded on videotape. That was the second day Scott was interviewed by police. Detectives continually asked Scott about his role in the Dec. 6, 1991 murders of four girls. Scott is on trial only for the murder of Amy Ayers, the youngest girl killed.
On Dec. 14, 1991, Maurice Pierce, who is awaiting trial for this crime, was arrested at Northcross Mall with a .22 caliber revolver. Pierce originally said that gun was used in the murders but ballistic tests didn't match and he was cleared. Police reinvestigated the "Maurice Pierce tip," which led to Scott's 1999 questioning.
Det. Robert Merrill testified Thursday that he brought the gun Pierce had with him when he was arrested into the interrogation room in hopes of triggering Scott's memory. But, the plan backfired.
"I hoped that he would open up and talk to me. As soon as I put that gun in his hand, he started shutting down. It didn't do what I hoped it would do," Merrill said.
After holding the gun for a minute, Scott handed the gun back to Merrill who walked behind him saying, "Is that the gun you walked up behind somebody with and shot in the head?" In a split-second Merrill touched the back of Scott's head. Merrill said the barrel was pointed down and he was holding the gun by the butt. He said his finger poked Scott's head. The defense is set to argue on cross-examination that it was the barrel of the gun and the action coerced Scott.
But there are more than 12 hours of tapes of Scott confessing before the role playing incident with the gun.
Scott later backtracked and said he was just trying to please investigators.
Scott: I told ya'll what you wanted to hear.
Merrill: What we wanted to hear?
Scott: Yeah. … I had two guys in here pressuring me. I've been making assumptions and guesses as to how and what I did. I was telling ya'll what ya'll wanted to hear. I'm here now and I don't know what to do. I don't know what to say. I'm scared I don't remember shooting anybody and I don't remember pulling the trigger. It's not in my nature to kill.
Merrill: Did you help plan (this robbery).
Scott: No sir, it's not something I would want to do, it's wrong.
Although the tapes show Merrill made it clear Scott didn't have to continue answering questions and could leave anytime he wanted, he stayed.
Scott said he wants to help detectives and himself.
"I wanna' get this big King Kong monkey off my back. I know I screwed up. I want (Robert Springsteen and Pierce) to pay for what happened … pay for what they did to me, what they did to these girls, what they did to the families," Scott said.
Several times Scott asked about what was going to happen to him and said he was willing to take responsibility for his actions.
"I probably deserve life because I was involved," Scott said. "I want to put this behind me, do my time and go to the electric chair … If I tell you everything that happened I probably won't go to prison. … maybe probation. … I think I raped one of them and killed someone. I deserve to die."
