Jean Jacques, told on June 25, 2015 that he was about to be charged with the murder of Casey Chadwick, waived his rights and granted Norwich police a lengthy interview in which he denied entering the victim's apartment the night she was killed.

"I never even went there that night," he said.

On the third day of Jacques' trial in New London Superior Court, jurors heard testimony Thursday from Norwich Detective Anthony Gomes, the lead detective in the case, and watched the video.

Gomes, accompanied by Detective Joel Grispino, interviewed Jacques at police headquarters 10 days after Chadwick's boyfriend found her body in a closet.

The state alleges that Jacques, 41, motivated at least in part by a stash of crack cocaine and marijuana in her Spaulding Street apartment, fatally stabbed 25-year-old Chadwick on June 15, 2015.

Four hours after her body was discovered, police said they arrested Jacques when he sold 0.6 grams of crack cocaine to a confidential informant during a controlled purchase on Franklin Street.

On June 25, they brought him from prison to police headquarters to speak with him, at his request, and to serve him with an arrest warrant charging him with Chadwick's murder.

"You're telling your side of the story is only going to help you," Gomes told Jacques after Jacques signed a form waiving his rights to remain silent and have legal representation during the interview. "Let's get right to the chase."

Over the next few hours, Jacques, whose first language is Haitian creole, spoke with a thick accent as he answered the detective's questions.

He said a friend picked him up from work at the Rustic Cafe in East Lyme after 10 p.m. and dropped him off in Norwich.

First he said the friend brought him 111 Broad St., where he had been staying with friends, then he changed his story to indicate the friend dropped him off on Spaulding Street.

Jacques said he owed $240 to Chadwick's boyfriend, Jean "Bugsy" Joseph, and wanted to see him.

He said he called Joseph from outside the apartment, and left after "Bugsy" told him he was already in bed and would see him the next day.

Confronted with a text message the victim had sent her boyfriend that said, "Zoe's here," Jacques, also known as Zoe, told the officer Chadwick may have seen him, but he never saw her.

"He's a liar," Jacques responded when Gomes said Joseph never told him he was not in the apartment that night, but was at the home of his child's mother.

"Why would he lie about the night his girl gets killed?" Gomes responded.

Throughout the interview, Jacques changed his story several times when Gomes confronted him with phone interviews and statements of other witnesses.

Prosecutor David J. Smith also called to the witness stand Cherylene Paddock, a representative from Verizon, who helped interpret phone records police had obtained immediately after Chadwick's body was found, including records of texts she sent to her boyfriend and her best friend.

Because of the volume of information contained in text messages, they disappear within one to three days unless the company receives a court order to preserve them, Paddock said.

"Tell him to leave," Chadwick's boyfriend texted Chadwick at 11:35 p.m. after she texted him that "Zoe" was there. "Tell him to leave. I'm coming."

Though the company provided the texts and the numbers from which they originated, defense attorney Sebastian O. DeSantis made the point during cross examination that the records "can't actually tell you who sent the text."

Also testifying Thursday was Mandi Edwards, a cook at the Rustic Cafe, who confirmed that Jacques had cut his hand at work on the night of June 14.

She said Jacques had a bleeding cut and a puncture wound and that he put on a Band-Aid and glove and went back to work.

When police arrested Jacques the next day, he had Band-Aids covering wounds on both hands.

A medical examiner is expected to testify Friday about the autopsy of Chadwick, and on Monday the state is expected to present DNA evidence that allegedly links Jacques to the crime.

k.florin@theday.com