LEBANON — As the body of convicted child molester Jason Wagner was being transported to the morgue on Nov. 14, 2000, an Ohio state trooper investigating the death offered kudos to inmate Timothy Hancock for the killing at Warren Correctional Institution.

        “I have emotions, too,” Trooper Nelson Holden told a jury Wednesday as testimony in the death penalty case began in Warren County Common Pleas Court.

Hancock

        “I told him I would rather give him the state patrol's recognition award, but I had to do my job.”

        His job Wednesday was to testify about two conflicting statements Mr. Hancock — a convicted killer with a history of schizophrenia and other mental illness during 11 years in prison — made detailing Mr. Wagner's death.

        Mr. Wagner, who was serving a sentence of 44 years to life for a high-profile case involving the abduction, rape and attempted murder of a 3-year-old girl in 1999, was found strangled shortly before midnight Nov. 13, 2000. He was tied to the top bunk in a cell he shared with Mr. Hancock. Mr. Hancock maintains the two were forced to cell together despite threats he made to harm Mr. Wagner, 25. Two prison guards denied that claim in testimony Tuesday.

        A jury, which will decide whether Mr. Hancock is guilty of aggravated murder or not guilty by reason of insanity, heard both of Mr. Hancock's taped confessions to Trooper Holden.

        In the first statement a few hours after the killing, Mr. Hancock said he became angry after Mr. Wagner made a sexual overture to him and bragged about what he did to 3-year-old Ashley Taggart, of Lancaster, Ohio.

        Mr. Hancock said that he slapped and punched Mr. Wagnerand threw him up on the top bunk. He said Mr. Wagner allowed himself to be tied to the bunk.

        “I was just going to call for (the guard),” Mr. Hancock told Trooper Holden. “But he started talking (expletive). I just snapped. ... I'm not even sorry for it.”

        He also blamed the prison.

        “When we go into court I'm going to stand up and I'm going to tell them all what I did, why I did it, how I warned you about that I was going to (expletive) this boy up and you ignored it,” he told Trooper Holden.

        Three days later, Mr. Hancock asked to talk to Trooper Holden again, saying he wanted to set the record straight. That time, he said he planned the killing for four or five hours after Mr. Wagner rubbed his leg and boasted about the Taggart case. Mr. Hancock said he strangled Mr. Wagner after tricking him into being tied to the bed.

        Inmates alerted guards after Mr. Hancock told them what he had done.

        Prosecutors said they intend to rest their case today. The defense is expected to lean heavily on psychiatric evaluations of Mr. Hancock.

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