By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — After strangling a college student to whom he'd just sold $100 worth of drugs, it was time to relax for alleged killer Jeromie Cancel, he said in a videotaped confession played in court Wednesday.
Cancel, 24, who said he was high on cocaine and on several prescription drugs at the time, lay down feet away from the lifeless body of 19-year-old Pace student Kevin Pravia and watched a "Saw" movie in its entirety while smoking cigarettes on Aug. 30, 2008, according to a video confession taped three days after the murder.
Cancel is accused of strangling Pravia in student's Chelsea bedroom with an electrical cord which had been connected to a PlayStation box, he said.
He turned the volume louder to try to drown out the sound of Pravia struggling for air, he admitted on the video.
"He was just trying to breath," said Cancel, who coldly detailed putting his lit cigarette down on the windowsill to save it while he choked the teen.
Cancel also punched the victim and stripped him naked before robbing him and leaving the apartment, he told prosecutors in the video.
"I get up and go start walking around — looking for anything worth money," an unapologetic Cancel told prosecutors during the recorded confession.
Cancel said he took a cell phone, laptop, iPod and other stolen items for sale on the street.
The next day he went to the Prospect Park Zoo and drank with friends, he said. Cancel was arrested three days later for a mugging in Queens, where he confessed to the murder to a police officer who did not initially believe his story.
Cancel grew irked when detectives woke him up from a nap for a lineup procedure at the 10th Precinct, where he was kept for hours.
"I said I murdered him. I strangled him. Why do i have got go through all this? I've been telling you this all day," said Cancel.
As the footage rolled in the courtroom Wednesday afternoon, Cancel nervously covered his face and twirled his cropped curly hair.
"Write something nice about me!" he shouted at reporters as he was handcuffed and walked out of the courtroom after the proceeding.
Jury selection in his trial is expected to begin after the completion of this hearing, which will resume on Thursday.
He faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
