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As the trial for accused killer Johnny Brickman Wall resumed for a third week Monday, prosecutors played a video of Wall's three-hour interview with police in which detectives yelled and lied to Wall while they pushed him for a murder confession he never delivered.
Former Salt Lake City police homicide Det. Tracy Ita said Wall went willingly with police to the station on the 2011 night that his ex-wife, Uta von Schwedler, was found dead in her Sugar House home.
As the footage began rolling for the 3rd District Court jury, Wall watched with a furrowed brow.
When detectives tell Wall his ex-wife has been found dead, Walls seems initially confused.
"Uta?" he asks, as if to clarify which of his two former spouses police mean. After a few more questions, Wall says: "Are you for real?"
Early on, the police also tell Wall: "We don't think for a second that you're involved."
But soon they are pressing Wall about the timeline of events and his actions after picking up his four children from their mother's home. They also ask repeatedly about a scratch on Wall's face and the redness in his eye, telling him it can't be from his dog, as Wall claims.
"It's from a fingernail," detective Mike Hardin says with confidence. "I know that for a fact."
When detectives tell Wall there was a struggle in Uta's house, he cocks his head and asks: "Are you accusing me?"
Throughout the three hours, detectives alternate between being nice to Wall and yelling at him about his "I don't remember," responses to questions.
"How is that going to work as a defense in court?" Hardin asks Wall at one point.
The detectives also ask Wall if there is a reason that his DNA would be found in von Schwedler's home. They want to know when he was last in the residence or when he last touched his former wife, a research scientist who was known for her work on the AIDS virus.
Wall, again, says he's can't remember, but concedes that since he has been in the residence it's possible that his fingerprints might be there.
"I don't know," he tells the detectives. "I think you want me to say something I can't say."
Just past the midpoint of the interviews, Walls appears to be tiring. The detectives seem increasing impatient. The pace of the speech increases and voices are raised. "You killed her," Hardin shouts.
Yelling back, Wall says: "That is absolutely not true ... I didn't do it ... How can you say that?"
Police say Wall is the only person with the motive and opportunity to commit the crime. He had access to the home, they note, and was engaged in a contentious fight over the custody of the children.
As he has done throughout the night, Wall again denies hurting his former wife and says he would never want his children to be without their mother.
Pushing for a confession, detectives ask Wall if he believes in God and say people are forgiven when they own up to their actions.
They also say they have a witness who saw Wall leave von Schwedler's home on the night of the alleged murder and a second witness who told police they had heard screams coming from the residence. Neither was true.
Near the end of the interview police ask Wall what his children will think about what he has done.
"If I really did what you say, I think they should think what I would think," he said. "That I'm a monster."
Defense attorney G. Fred Metos told jurors during opening statements that the video recording of his client's police interview would show a man questioning his own sanity, especially after police officers lie to Wall about the evidence they had gathered only a few hours into an investigation.
"What you'll see in that video is Johnny's demeanor change," Metos said. "The officers convinced him, basically, that he was losing his mind."
Wall, 51, who was a Salt Lake City pediatrician at the time, is charged in 3rd District Court with one count of first-degree felony murder.
Von Schwedler, 49, was found by her boyfriend submerged in a bathtub in her Sugar House home on the night of Sept. 27, 2011.
Prosecutors claim Wall drugged her with Xanax and then drowned her — the culmination of a messy divorce and custody battle over their four children.
Wall's defense attorneys, however, maintain that von Schwedler's death was either a suicide or an accident.
The state medical examiner's office found that von Schwedler died from drowning, but could not determine whether the manner of her death was homicide, suicide or accidental.
Also on the stand Monday were two family friends, Andrea Brickey and Jill Alger-James, who came to Wall's house after he returned from the police station. Brickey testified that one of the Wall children called her for help, saying their father was in distress and needed some support.
Wall was distraught and lying on his bed sobbing, Brickey said. She offered him Xanax, a prescription medicine which is taken to reduce anxiety, in hopes of calming him down. Brickey told the jury she also called Alger-James, a social worker, who later took Wall to the University of Utah's psychiatric hospital, where she worked.
"He said he wanted to jump out of a window ..." Alger-James testified. "I felt like he was in crisis."
Wall faces up to life in prison if convicted. He has been held in the Salt Lake County jail in lieu of $1.5 million cash-only bail.
He has signed an agreement with the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing, giving up his medical license and his ability to write prescriptions until the murder case is resolved.