LEXINGTON — Prosecutors rested their case against Shane Ragland after playing a videotape ofpolice questioning him about the death of University of Kentucky football player Trent DiGiuro, with Mr. Ragland denying he knew Mr. DiGiuro.

        Mr. Ragland also denied living near Mr. DiGiuro or discussing his death with a former girlfriend.

Shane Ragland

        Mr. Ragland is accused of shooting Mr. DiGiuro in the head as Mr. DiGiuro sat on the porch of his rented Lexington home, celebrating his 21st birthday July 17, 1994.

        Prosecutors contend that Mr. Ragland was angry Mr. DiGiuro had gotten him thrown out of a UK fraternity nearly three years earlier.

        Police were stumped by the crime until Mr. Ragland's former girlfriend told them Mr. Ragland had admitted the killing to her. The day before he was arrested, Aimee Lloyd met with Mr. Ragland and recorded a discussion they had about their pasts, during which she brought up the death of Mr. DiGiuro.

        On the videotape of the police interrogation, played for jurors Monday, Mr. Ragland told what prosecutors say are numerous lies.

        Mr. Ragland denied any knowledge of the shooting and said he didn't know Mr. DiGiuro, who was from Oldham County.

        “I didn't know Trent, I swear to God,” Mr. Ragland said, before allowing he might have seen him at Sigma Alpha Epsilon parties before Mr. Ragland was blackballed in the fall of 1991. Mr. DiGiuro was not a member of the fraternity but had friends who belonged.

        Last week, Mr. DiGiuro's former roommate, Matt Blandford, testified that Mr. Ragland knew Mr. DiGiuro and that Mr. Ragland had told him and Mr. DiGiuro that he had slept with a fraternity member's girlfriend — the comment that got him expelled from the fraternity.

        Mr. Blandford also said Mr. DiGiuro had told Mr. Ragland that he was responsible for getting Mr. Ragland thrown out.

        Mr. Ragland also said he was not living on Woodland Avenue, just a few houses from Mr. DiGiuro, at the time of the shooting.

        He claimed that he learned of the killing sometime later.

        “I don't know if I read it in the paper or if someone told me about it after it happened,” he said.

        When police questioned him about the meeting with Ms. Lloyd, Mr. Ragland said they talked about their jobs, his drunken driving arrests, his time in alcohol rehab and the death of his brother. But he said they never talked about Mr. DiGiuro.

        “If she told you we talked about the murder, she's a liar,” he told Lt. Mark Barnard and Detective Don Evans.

        When police played a recording of the conversation, which took place at Blue Grass Airport, in which Ms. Lloyd mentioned the name “Trent” twice and that he was a UK football player once, Mr. Ragland said he didn't hear her and didn't know what she was talking about.

        “You can say, "I didn't hear it one time.' You can say, "I didn't hear it two times,'” Lt. Barnard told Mr. Ragland. “You cannot say, "I didn't hear it three times.' I'm not going to let you lie to me.”

        At one point, Mr. Ragland vehemently proclaimed his innocence.

        “I may have made an inference to Trent at some point in the past, but I didn't kill anyone. I swear to you guys, I didn't do this,” he said. “You're wrong, guys, I swear to God.”

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