During an interview with a state police detective in March 2009, Dickie E. Anderson Jr., a suspect in two cold case murders, laughed at times and pointed out holes in the state's case against him.

There were lengthy pauses between questions and answers, and at one point, Anderson winked at a hidden camera, according to Detective David Lamoureux of the Eastern District Major Crime Squad.

There was no confession from Anderson, who declared several times that he did not kill anybody.

Anderson is on trial in New London Superior Court, charged with fatally strangling Renee Pellegrino in 1997 and Michelle Comeau in 1998.

On Thursday, as the prosecution continued to present its case, the jury listened to a second interview that was conducted while Anderson was incarcerated at the Osborn Correctional Institution for a March 3, 2008, domestic violence incident in which he pleaded guilty to third-degree strangulation, interfering with police and first-degree unlawful restraint.

Lamoureux and Inspector Michael Hurley, who had confronted Anderson seven months earlier with the fact that Anderson's DNA had been found on Pellegrino's body, returned after disproving some of Anderson's previous story and placing a jailhouse informant in Anderson's cell.

Hurley left the interview room after Anderson indicated he didn't want him there.

The jailhouse informant, Arthur Moore, said Anderson told him he and Pellegrino had fought over money after having sex and that he had put his hands around her neck and shaken her. Moore said that after he learned she was pregnant, Anderson told him he regretted killing Pellegrino. Pellegrino was 17 weeks pregnant with a male baby when she died, according to autopsy results.

"I wouldn't even have sex with her if I knew she was pregnant," Anderson said during the interview. "She doesn't have any respect for herself."

After learning his cellmate had informed on him, Anderson asked to hear the recordings and Lamoureux obliged him by playing a short portion. Lamoureux urged Anderson to have some compassion for Pellegrino's family and tell the truth. The trooper told Anderson he could help himself by explaining whether he had killed Pellegrino accidentally.

"It's not my concern," Anderson said at one point.

Lamoureux told Anderson it was "very much" his concern, and that he would bet his paycheck Anderson would be charged with murder.

In August 2008, when Lamoureux, Hurley and Detective Joseph DePasquale confronted Anderson with the DNA evidence, he admitted having sex with Pellegrino at about 4 a.m. on June 25, 1997, at his sister's house on Fern Street in New London. He said she was fine when she left with his then co-worker, Darrell, a man police have never been able to identify. Pellegrino's body was found a few hours later, laid out, naked, in the roadway at Waterford Parkway South.

"This is what I need to know," Anderson said at one point during the March 2009 interview. "How did I get her (Renee Pellegrino) to where she was dumped? That, that is the big question."

Anderson, who recently had been released from prison, said he did not have a car in June 1997 and that he walked back and forth from his job in The Day mail room. His sister, Tanya Anderson, testified that she sometimes let him use her 1987 Plymouth Turismo. Lamoureux attempted unsuccessfully to locate the car in 2008.

Prosecutors David J. Smith and Stephen M. Carney said they expect to rest their case today or Monday, after which defense attorneys Christopher Duby and John T. Walkley will begin calling witnesses.

k.florin@theday.com