"You have the right to remain silent," an officer told him, but 22-year-old Jerome Cancel would not remain silent.
He would recount in chilling, horrifying detail the grizzly murder of the 19-year-old Pravia.
Cancel was in Pravia's apartment after selling him cocaine. Pravia fell asleep, and Cancel started to look for things to steal. He grabbed some items and started to leave.
"As soon as I stepped out of the house, I stepped back in and I grabbed a cord from behind the TV and I made a loop and I strangled him," Cancel said.
Pravia reportedly woke up and started to struggle.
"I was strangling him, and I punched him in his face, and I grabbed a plastic bag and I put it in his mouth," he said. "And I held his nose with a pillow over his face. When he passed away, I pushed him over on the bed, put a blanket over him, laid down and watched TV for a little while."
Cancel says he watched what he called an extended version of one of the "Saw" movies as Pravia lay dead beside him in the apartment.
But why kill him?
Pravia was asleep, and Cancel had stolen everything of value in the apartment and gotten away.
"I don't even know what made me go back inside and strangle him," Cancel said. "I already had everything. I didn't need to hurt him. Something just made me go back and get him."
But Cancel isn't sorry about the murder, as much as he is sorry he hurt himself in the process.
"I got this part of my hands still swollen from the wire marks," Cancel said.
The recording was played in court at the end of the day. When Cancel was led away he said to reporters, "Write something nice about me."
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