SAN DIEGO -- One of three teens originally charged with the 1998 murder of Stephanie Crowe testified Wednesday that he lied to detectives about being involved in the killing because they wouldn't believe his story.

Joshua Treadway, now 20, testified for a second day in the preliminary hearing for Richard Tuite, a 33-year-old transient now charged with the girl's murder.

Prosecutors are trying to show that statements Treadway gave during two lengthy interrogations by Escondido police detectives were coerced.

Attorneys for Tuite have presented evidence that they say points to Treadway, Aaron Houser and the victim's older brother, Michael, as the killers.

The three originally were charged with the seventh-grader's murder. But charges were dropped when a DNA test revealed Stephanie's blood on a filthy red shirt Tuite wore the night of the killing.

The case was turned over to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and the state Attorney General's Office three years ago.

Treadway told Senior Assistant Attorney General Gary Schons that he lied about getting a knife from Houser because he felt it was his only way to avoid going to prison for the rest of his life.

The witness agreed with Detective Ralph Claytor's "scale theory" to place himself at a lower level of culpability than Houser and Michael Crowe.

Treadway said if he told Claytor what really happened -- that he stole the "Best Defense" knife from Houser's room months earlier so he could show it to his brother -- "the evidence would screw me to the wall and I would go to prison."

The witness said he retracted his statement about getting the knife from Houser and hiding it under his bed "because it wasn't the truth."

"The truth is that I took the knife from Aaron Houser," Treadway testified.

He said he offered to take a lie detector test after the interrogations because "they wouldn't believe me."

"I believed that it would verify that I was telling the truth, and I would be able to go home," Treadway said.

During a break in his initial interrogation over the days of Jan. 27-28, 1998, Treadway said he told his father he wasn't involved in Stephanie's murder.

"I told him that I was innocent," Treadway testified. "And that I took Aaron's knife. And that was the extent of it."

Treadway told Schons he agreed to take a Computer Voice Stress Analyzer test administered by Detective Chris McDonough because he thought it was a better version of a lie detector test.

Schons asked Treadway why he told McDonough on Jan. 28, 1998, that he received the knife from Houser.

"Because I wanted to be on a lower scale," Treadway said. "I felt that there was no way out."

Treadway testified Tuesday that he had no idea his "friend" Stephanie had been been killed until her older brother called him hours after her body was discovered the morning of Jan. 21, 1998.

Treadway took the witness stand after Judge Gale Kaneshiro listened to more than 10 hours of the videotaped interrogation Treadway gave to Escondido police detectives on Jan. 27, 1998.

Prosecutors say they also intend to call an expert on police interrogation and coercion to invalidate Treadway's statements five years ago.

At the end of the preliminary hearing, Kaneshiro will determine if there is enough evidence to order Tuite to stand trial.

He faces 27 years to life in prison if tried and convicted.