By Julie Shapiro
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — Jeromie Cancel was eager to confess after he allegedly strangled a 19-year-old Pace University student in Chelsea two years ago, a police officer who heard the confession said Tuesday. There was just one problem: The officer didn’t believe him.
Three days after Kevin Pravia was killed in his Chelsea apartment in October of 2008, Cancel, then 22, was taken into custody on an unrelated larceny charge and immediately began claiming credit for Pravia’s murder, testified Sean Hynes, the officer who was processing Cancel at the 104th Precinct in Queens.
"I honestly didn’t believe…someone would come in and admit to murder," Hynes said Tuesday morning, at a court hearing in advance of Cancel's upcoming murder trial.
"[Cancel] came across as being a braggart," Hynes said. "I told him, 'Stop lying. I’m arresting you for petit larceny, and that’s it.'"
But Cancel just kept on confessing, Hynes said.
The officer recounted all the gory details Cancel gave him.
Cancel told him he met Pravia, a stranger, in Union Square early in the morning of Aug. 30, 2008. The pair then allegedly went back to Pravia’s Chelsea apartment to do drugs. After Pravia fell asleep, Cancel told the officer, he grabbed Pravia’s laptop, iPod and cell phone and was about to leave.
"But [Cancel] was bored and had nowhere to go," Hynes recalled Cancel telling him. "So he turned around and decided he was going to kill [Pravia]."
Cancel told Hynes he wrapped an electrical cord around Pravia’s neck, and when Pravia resisted, Cancel punched him and stuffed a plastic bag in his mouth, Hynes said.
Once Pravia was dead, Cancel allegedly hung out in the apartment for an hour and a half, smoking cigarettes and watching "Saw."
Cancel also gave Hynes details that hadn’t been in the newspapers, including that Pravia was wearing a lip ring, and that there was a Gatorade bottle containing alcohol in the apartment, Hynes said.
After processing all of Cancel’s paperwork on the larceny charge, Hynes finally told a sergeant about the confession, and soon the precinct was flooded with detectives and officers, Hynes said. Eventually, Cancel was charged with Pravia's murder.
Cancel has pleaded not guilty to the crime.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Michael Alperstein, Cancel’s defense attorney, asked Hynes why he didn’t give Cancel his Miranda warnings when Cancel first started talking.
Hynes replied that Cancel spilled the details without any prodding.
"I didn’t ask him any questions," Hynes said.
The pre-trial hearing will continue Wednesday, and the trial could start as early as next week.
