A friend of murder defendant Jean Jacques testified Monday — the fifth day of his trial in New London Superior Court — that a statement police said she provided about the events of June 15, 2015, contained inaccuracies and that her initials and signature at the bottom of the statement were forged.

Jacques, 41, is on trial in the June 15, 2015, stabbing death of Casey Chadwick at her 16 Spaulding St., Norwich, apartment.

Indira Gomes, initially scheduled to testify as a witness for the state, instead was called to the witness stand by defense attorney Sebastian O. DeSantis.

Gomes clashed with the lead investigator in the case, Norwich Police Detective Anthony Gomes (no relation), because she said he questioned her "continuously" about a black vinyl gym bag, belonging to Jacques, that was found in the trunk of her car a month after the homicide.

Indira Gomes consented to a search of her Washington Street apartment and car, and police said the bag in the trunk of her Honda Accord contained a pair of Jacques' jeans that the state alleges were stained with blood from the victim.

Indira Gomes said Jacques put the bag in her trunk days before the incident and she forgot it was there, but Detective Gomes said she changed her story several times over the course of the investigation.

The detective interviewed her most recently on March 28, the day before she was to testify, under subpoena, for the state. 

"He would raise his voice and say it was my last chance," she said from the witness stand. "He told me he found blood in my trunk. I knew he was trying to get me to say he (Jacques) put the bag in my trunk that morning. He told me this was my last chance to talk."

The state alleges Jacques killed Chadwick sometime after 12:40 a.m. and took marijuana, cocaine and a cellphone from Chadwick's apartment.

Other items, including jewelry and an XBox player were reported missing but so far have not been accounted for at the trial.

Indira Gomes testified that she picked up Jacques in front of the Wauregan Laundromat about 7 a.m. after getting off work at Foxwoods Resort Casino and picking up her son in Montville.

She said Jacques, a friend she met on Facebook, routinely would babysit for her children when she went to the gym, and that they had made arrangements for him to baby-sit on June 14.

When she called him that morning, Jacques told her to pick him up at the laundromat, she said.

When she arrived, he walked up to her car with no laundry, she said. He told her he had walked to his Broad Street apartment with the laundry and returned to meet her.

During his cross-examination of Indira Gomes, prosecutor David J. Smith put her statement to police on the projecter and went through every line, asking her, "Is that accurate?"

"Does the signature look like yours?" Smith asked.

"No, that isn't my signature," Indira Gomes responded. She said the initials throughout the document look like her initials, "but I didn't initial it."

Her cross-examination will continue on Tuesday.

Also Monday, the jury finished watching a videotaped interrogation of Jacques on June 25, 2015, the day police charged him with murder.

Jacques waived his right to an attorney and Detectives Gomes and Joel Grispino questioned Jacques for nearly four hours at police headquarters.

Toward the end of the interview, both detectives moved their chairs closer to Jacques and Detective Gomes raised his voice.

Though Jacques had changed some of the details of his story during the interview, he consistently denied being in the Spaulding Street apartment and killing Chadwick, despite Detective Gomes' reminders that his blood was found in the apartment and Chadwick had texted her boyfriend, Jean "Bugsy" Joseph, that Jacques was at the apartment.

"I don't know why they find my blood in this house," Jacques told the detectives. "I don't kill this girl. I don't know why I would kill her. Why? I know her a long time."

k.florin@theday.com