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Interrogation tapes heard on day 7 of John Wall trial

Posted at 8:14 PM, Mar 02, 2015
and last updated 2015-03-02 22:14:20-05

SALT LAKE CITY – In week three of the John Wall trial, the jury had the chance to hear from the pediatrician accused of killing his ex-wife in 2011.

Detectives interviewed Wall for three hours the night Uta von Schwedler was found dead in a bathtub in her Sugarhouse home. The interview of Wall being questioned by detectives was played in court Monday.

During the interview, detectives tried to get Wall to admit he killed his ex-wife.

"The reason why you don't want to remember is because you killed her,” Salt Lake Police Detective Mark Hardin said to John Wall during the interrogation. “You took her life! Yes you did! You took your children's mother's life.”

The interrogation was contentious. Detectives repeatedly ask the former doctor if he killed Uta von Schwedler. Wall told them he could not remember.

Wall: “I hope I would be self-aware enough to know that that's happening.”

Hardin: “But sometimes it just gets out of control, Johnny, sometimes it really is an out-of-body experience. It's an accident. It becomes an accident.”

Wall: “But I don't think I did it."

The defense has asserted throughout the trial that Wall was badgered by detectives into admitting guilt. During his interview, Wall blames the anti-depressants he was taking for his confusion and lack of memory.

Hardin: “Do you remember being diagnosed with selective memory?"

Wall: “I self-medicate my depression."

Wall told detectives he was sleeping on his porch with his dog the night von Schwedler died. He claims his dog stepped on his face, causing an injury to his left eye.

“I think I was asleep on a porch,” Wall says. “I think I got woken up by my dog. That's what I remember."

But detectives didn't buy his story. They told Wall evidence pointed to him as the killer.

Wall: “It sounds like you've decided it's me. I mean, that's what you've basically said."

Hardin: "Well the evidence is not looking good for you, I'll tell you that right now. And I think you can understand where we're coming from based on everything we've discussed the last little bit we've been talking."

In their cross-examination, the defense questioned the tactics the two detectives used while interrogating Wall, saying they were trying to coerce him into admitting he killed Uta von Schwedler.