Standing in a cell in the basement of a New York City justice center, Luis Ramos Nunez-Calderon told a Pennsylvania state trooper he had choked and slit the throat of his former girlfriend, Wendy Contreras-Hernandez of Shenandoah on April 29, 2014.

But the blame fell on Contreras-Hernandez because she wouldn't stop screaming, he told trooper Melissa A. Kyper."It's all her fault. If she didn't do that, I wouldn't have killed her," Kyper quoted Nunez-Calderon as she testified at his murder trial Tuesday.Testimony began Tuesday before Schuylkill County Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin.Nunez-Calderon, 42, is charged with criminal homicide, first- and third-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, criminal trespass and aggravated assault.If convicted, he faces life in prison.Police say Nunez-Calderon killed Contreras-Hernandez, 38, in her home, then paid a Hazleton transportation company to take him to Manhattan.From there, he went to his mother's house in the Bronx.District Attorney Christine Holman and Senior Deputy Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Lehman on Tuesday called 14 witnesses.Sitting next to defense attorney Kent D. Watkins, Calderon, free of shackles and cuffs and wearing a wrinkled light yellow button shirt, gripped the wooden arm of his chair as he leaned in close to listen as each of his two interpreters took turns translating what was being said from English to Spanish.Calderon is from the Dominican Republic and does not speak English.Confession and remorseKyper, who at the time was at the Frackville barracks, testified that U.S. Marshals picked up Calderon in New York City on April 30.She, accompanied by trooper Eric Shaeffer, went to the city to interview Calderon.They found him in a holding cell, along with several other men, in the basement of the Manhattan Central Court.After moving to another cell for more privacy, Kyper obtained an interpreter, Adeles Acosta, a Dominican Republic native who works for the court and translates as part of her job in the bail office.Calderon waived his Miranda rights at 11:05 p.m. and spoke with police, with Acosta interpreting."He was very calm, very passive," Acosta testified. But "when he started getting into the details, he started crying."Asked as to his whereabouts on April 29, 2014, Nunez-Calderon's "story changed a few times," Kyper said.His confession came about when she confronted him about the discrepancies."He then became teary-eyed and emotional," Kyper said.Nunez-Calderon told the troopers he went to Shenandoah on April 29, 2014, to visit Contreras-Hernandez, who picked him up at a bus station in Hazleton.Kyper said Nunez-Calderon said Contreras-Hernandez told him she had a restraining order against him, but that he thought it was a ruse to keep him away.Kyper said he told her he checked Contreras-Hernandez' cellphone to make sure she wasn't recording him to get him in trouble. He suspected her of trying to get neighbors' attention.The two argued, and the verbal battle turned physical. Nunez-Calderon said Contreras-Hernandez ran up the stairs and out onto a second-story porch, from which she jumped, Kyper testified.He ran out to find her, and saw she had hurt her leg.She started screaming, and he grabbed her and pulled her back into her living room by her arms and legs, according to Kyper's testimony."Don't do that or I'll get in trouble," Kyper said Nunez-Calderon told her he said to his girlfriend.But she kept screaming, and so he "grabbed her by the throat and began to choke her," Kyper testified.When she lost consciousness, he took her to the bathroom upstairs and laid her on the floor.She tried to scream and sit up, and so he went to the kitchen for a knife, and cut her throat, Kyper testified."If she had calmed down, I wouldn't have had to do that," Nunez-Calderon told the trooper.It was Contreras-Hernandez' then 9-year-old daughter who discovered her mother's body.Flight and captureHolman called Cpl. David R. Dupree to testify. He described the blood streaks and marks, and where they and other evidence were in the house.Through Dupree's color photos projected onto a screen, jurors followed a trail of drops and smears of blood from the front door of the tidy half-double house at 518 W. Centre St., Shenandoah, to the small second floor bathroom where the slender body of Contreras-Hernandez lay in a pool of blood.After throwing the kitchen knife onto clothes on a top shelf of Contreras-Hernandez' bedroom closet, Nunez-Calderon tried to call a cab, but his cellphone wouldn't connect.He then went to a nearby Burger King, where patron Lenoard Rivera testified he saw a man matching Nunez-Calderon's description, with blood on his face and around his fingernails, and acted nervous and asked about a ride to Hazleton.He next went to a bar across the street from Contreras-Hernandez' house, drank several beers and indicated he needed a cab, bartender Valerie Reinmiller testified. She called, but no cab ever showed up. Another patron, Richard Wylie, offered to drive Nunez-Calderon to Hazleton for the $50 the cab ride would have cost.Reinmiller said Nunez-Calderon "pulled out a wad of cash" to show he had the money.Using hand gestures, Nunez-Calderon had Wylie drop him off at the Rite Aid drugstore on North Church Street.C&G Transportation is across the street, and he went there to buy a 7 p.m. van ride to Manhattan, employees Juana Felice and Rosa Jimenez testified.Once in Manhattan, he went to the Bronx, to his mother's house.It was not clear from testimony exactly when U.S. Marshals picked him up.Among other witnesses called by Holman and Lehman were trooper Joseph Aponick, who described how he documented the crime scene; Cpl. Jeff Sampson, who obtained a search warrant for the house, and found the bloody knife in Contreras-Herandez' closet; state police serologist Michelle Shortell, who described how she processed the blood evidence; and state police fingerprint expert Cpl. Laura Klinger, who said no prints could be read on the knife.She said handling, movement or pressure could distort the prints, making them hard to identify. State police DNA scientist Beth Holsopple said it was mostly Nunez-Calderon's blood on the knife and the bathroom sink.Nunez-Calderon had a cut on his finger, Kyper testified.