SAN ANTONIO – Otis McKane, the 31-year-old man accused of killing a San Antonio police detective, said he doesn't want people to think badly of him.
McKane spent about 20 minutes Monday morning telling his story from behind a glass partition. Dressed in a red jumpsuit and wearing handcuffs, he made an impassioned presentation.
"I'm not a person who wants to go out and do bad," he said. "I don't have time to be someone who wants to go around killing people. I want to learn and work."
McKane was arrested November 21 on a capital-murder charge in connection with the death of Detective Benjamin Marconi. The 20-year SAPD veteran was shot dead the previous day while sitting in his patrol car outside Public Safety Headquarters, writing a ticket for another driver.
Immediately after his arrest, McKane told reporters that he was upset about a child-custody case, in which he was not being allowed to see his son. He said Marconi had no connection to that case.
During the jailhouse interview Monday, McKane said his words were misconstrued. However, he declined to talk about the murder or any events leading up to it. Instead, he spent a good portion of the time discussing his own past, which includes several run-ins with law enforcement.
McKane said after he lost his identification card in 2006, he began having trouble. He said he believes someone has been using it to impersonate him. Since that time, McKane said he has been falsely accused of crimes such as robbery and even spent a week in jail.
"Why am I being falsely accused?" he said. "Why is someone impersonating me?"
He also hinted that might be the case with his latest arrest, although when asked directly, he again declined to discuss the case.
Another subject that drew his anger was his child custody-case. McKane repeated a claim he made previously about not being permitted to spend time with his son.
He said he was angry that police had not assisted him that. However, he once again refused to say whether his anger might have had anything to do with the detective's murder.
McKane's next scheduled court appearance is Dec. 22.