BLOOMINGTON - A former federal inmate told a jury Thursday that Maurice LaGrone Jr. admitted killing his former girlfriend's three children three years ago in Clinton Lake.

"Man, I need somebody to talk to. I killed them kids," Dwight Hayden quoted LaGrone as saying during his testimony in LaGrone's first-degree murder trial.

LaGrone and former girlfriend Amanda Hamm are accused of intentionally putting Hamm's car in the lake with Christopher Hamm, 6, Austin Brown, 3, and Kyleigh Hamm, 23 months, in the back seat.

Hayden said the conversation with LaGrone took place while they were housed together in DeWitt County Jail from October 2003 to May 2004. He said.;he initially did not tell investigators about LaGrone's comments but changed his mind after he had a dream in which his deceased mother told him.;to "do the right thing" by testifying.

LaGrone defense attorney Jeff Justice spent more than 15 minutes questioning Hayden about a criminal record that began when the 54-year-old witness was 16 years old. Justice also asked Hayden about.;letters he sent to Clinton investigators and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago..;The.;Clinton letters.;offered.;cooperation in LaGrone's case, and the Chicago letter sought leniency for one of Hayden's friends, who was a disabled inmate, in exchange for cooperation.

Hayden spent more than three hours answering questions about his statements to state and local investigators. After an hour-long tape recording of a May 18, 2005, interview with police was played, the defense asked Hayden about several discrepancies between his testimony Thursday and the May statement. He denied telling detectives that LaGrone told him about the possibility of selling the children or collecting insurance money after their deaths. The taped account contained those allegations.

The former prisoner also told police in May that Hamm and LaGrone differed in their decision to go into the water for the children.

"She acted like she wanted to, but he wouldn't let her," said Hayden. He said LaGrone laughed when he told him about the lack of effort to save the youngsters.

After the testimony, defense attorney Tom Griffith described Hayden as "entirely and utterly unbelievable - I wouldn't believe him if he said the sun came up."

Special Prosecutor Ed Parkinson defended Hayden's testimony, saying the former inmate overcame several reservations about getting involved in the case.

A second former inmate, Jerry Peters, said LaGrone told him he saw the.;windows of the car after.;it went into the lake but took no action to save the children.

"He made the statement that he could see the windows and roof of the car but he couldn't swim," Peters said.

Peters also quoted LaGrone as saying.;Hamm's three children "didn't mean nothing to him anyway." LaGrone was considering a return to a former girlfriend and a young son in the St. Louis area, according to Peters.

Peters told the jury he received no reduction in his sentence in exchange for his testimony.

DeWitt County Sheriff's detective Rick Hawn explained a timeline to jurors of the initial moments after Hamm made a frantic 911 call to police from a pay phone at the lake.

About 14 minutes elapsed from the time the call was received until the children were removed from the car. Hawn showed the jury a sketch he made the night of the incident that depicted the car in the lake. The front of the car was in about 7 feet of water and the rear in about 4½ feet, he said.

The final witness for the day was Tom Lane, a mechanic at Baum's Chevrolet Buick in Clinton. He said police asked him to assess the damage to Hamm's car and attempt to repair it for testing at the lake several days after the incident. He said that a problem existed with the car's door locks, a problem that remained when the car was returned to the boat ramp for testing.

"Without consistency, the doors would lock and unlock or actually quiver in the lock and unlock position," he said.

DeWitt County Sheriff Roger Massey is slated as the only witness today. He will present testimony on the automotive tests and discuss statements he took from LaGrone. Amanda Hamm is scheduled to end the state's case Monday, and LaGrone is expected to open the defense case the following day.

Edith Brady-Lunny can be reached at eblunny@;mchsi.com.