AUSTIN -- After several days of testimony, the man accused of breaking into the home of an Austin choir teacher, stealing her jewelry and stabbing her to death took the stand during his murder trial Tuesday to give his side of the story.
While on the stand, Shawn Gant-Benalcazar blamed a family friend for committing the murder.
The 33-year-old said he and Timothy Parlin were together, burglarizing Kathy Blair's house the night of her murder.
Gant-Benalcazar said he would come to Austin from his home in Galveston to visit his sister.
He said family friend Timothy Parlin convinced him of committing burglary. And at night in December of 2014, Gant-Benalcazar and Parlin went to the victim's house. On the stand Tuesday, Gant-Benalcazar said Parlin told him that Parlin killed the victim in her home.
"He said that I guess he had hit something," Gant-Benalcazar said, referencing his conversation with Parlin after the crime. "Approaching the bed, he hit something with his foot. And caused her to wake up. He said that there was a struggle over the knife. And that he stabbed her in the neck. And that she had kicked him and he grabbed her by the legs and pulled her off the bed."
Gant-Benalcazar also said Parlin used Gant-Benalcazar's knife.
"You're not going to say anything about it because I used your knife," Gant-Benalcazar said Parlin told him. "'So if you say something about it, that's going to get to the cops,' is what he told me."
However, earlier in this trial, the prosecution played a video of Gant-Benalcazar confessing to the murder.
On Friday, April 6, the jury saw Gant-Benalcazar's confession video, in which he admitted to stabbing Blair in the neck in 2014.
According to the confession video, Gant-Benalcazar said he didn't mean to stab Blair and was trying to take her jewelry without killing her.
Austin police detectives who worked Blair's murder case testified Monday that they didn't believe it was possible Gant-Benalcazar's confession was false. They also added that they didn't believe Gant-Benalcazar was on drugs at the time of the confession.
On Tuesday, Gant-Benalcazar said he confessed to the crime in the video because he thought he would be charged regardless, and he was afraid of possible retaliation against his family from Parlin.
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Even through cross-examination Tuesday, Gant-Benalcazar stood by his testimony saying he did not kill Kathy Blair.
Attorneys asked him: "Did you kill Kathy Blair?"
"No I did not," Gant-Benalcazar said.
KVUE's Rebeca Trejo is covering the trial. Follow her tweets for the latest updates from the courtroom.