SAN DIEGO -- A tearful Michael Crowe testified Wednesday that he lied to Escondido detectives about killing his sister, Stephanie, because they told him he could get treatment and avoid jail time if he did.

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Crowe was testifying for a third day in the murder trial of Richard Tuite, a transient charged with killing the 12-year-old girl in 1998.

Crowe, now 20, also testified he did not remember details of an estimated 15-minute trip to the kitchen to get aspirin and milk, at a time of night when Stephanie already may have been dead.

Crowe said detectives gave him two legal roads to travel: one leading to treatment, and one that would send him to jail.

The victim's brother testified that he finally decided to tell detectives what they wanted to hear, so he made up a story about killing Stephanie.

"I wanted to get them on my side so they could help me," he testified. "If not, I thought I would go to jail."

During a long, videotaped interrogation, Crowe repeatedly tells detectives Ralph Claytor and Mark Wrisley he doesn't remember killing his sister.

At one point, the detectives ask the then-14-year-old to write a "letter" to Stephanie, asking her forgiveness.

"I'm so sorry that I can't even remember what I did to you," Crowe wrote.

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Crowe Testimony Focuses On Interrogations

Referring to the interrogation, Crowe wrote, "They're putting me through hell, and I think that is what I deserve. They want me to help them, but I can't."

On the tape, the detectives ask Crowe whether his other sister, Shannon, or his grandmother, father or mother could have killed Stephanie.

The witness said he finally decided to lie and tell detectives what they wanted to hear.

"I know I did it, but I don't know how," Crowe said on the videotape.

He originally was charged with murder in the case, along with friends Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser. A judge later ruled their "confessions" were coerced. The charges were dropped when blood was found on Tuite's sweatshirt.

The transient was seen in the Crowe neighborhood that night knocking on doors, looking in windows and asking for a friend named "Tracy."

Defense attorney Brad Patton challenged Crowe's memory of specific events leading up to Stephanie's death.

Under cross-examination, Crowe acknowledged telling police he woke up around 4:30 a.m. the day the girl's body was found, went to the kitchen for aspirin and milk, and saw on his television that it was 4:45 a.m. when he was back in his room.

"I don't remember what happened," Crowe answered when asked what he did during that time. "I don't remember hanging around the house for 15 minutes. I may have been in my room."

Patton frequently clashed with the soft-spoken witness over his memory of which days of school he missed because he was sick, what took place during an outing to a mall and whether he had dinner the night before his sister was killed.

The trial is scheduled to resume Monday with Crowe on the stand again in the rebuttal portion of the prosecution case.

Other members of Crowe's family, Treadway and Houser, and experts on scientific issues raised by the defense, are still scheduled to testify in this segment of the trial, prosecutors said.