ROCKY MOUNT -- "I killed my mother-in-law."

That was the first statement James Cleveland Miller made April 11 to a 911 dispatcher, according to prosecutors. The 911 recording was heard publicly for the first time Tuesday during a preliminary hearing in Franklin County court.

"I was tired of the bickerin'," the man tells the dispatcher in response to a question of why he did it. "Tired of the belittlement."

Miller is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of his quadriplegic mother-in-law, Pamela Hall, 59. No pleas were entered during the preliminary hearing, but Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Sarah Rice certified the charges and will pass them on to the grand jury. The grand jury is scheduled to meet July 6 to decide whether Miller will be tried, and for what charges.

Hall's and Miller's family members were at the hearing, but they declined to comment. Family members sobbed as they listened to the 911 tape and testimony from an investigator, recounting the incident.

In numerous recorded interviews, Miller told investigator Justin Sigmon that he and his mother-in-law had argued the night before April 11. He woke early in the morning, took one of the knives he collected and stabbed Hall multiple times in the chest as she lay in bed, Sigmon said.

The investigator described Miller as "alert, very descriptive" and cooperative when interviewed. Miller's attorney, Carolyn Furrow, said he has expressed remorse.

Through the 911 call Miller could be heard crying and saying, "I didn't mean to," and "Oh, God, what have I done?"

Miller, his wife, Patricia, and their daughter had been living with Hall in a mobile home in the Figsboro area. The Miller family lived there for about 10 years; Patricia Miller served as her mother's caregiver after she was injured in a single-vehicle wreck.

In the 911 recording, Miller, whose age was listed as 41 when he was arrested in April, said he and Hall had been having problems for a while and that he had been "institutionalized five times because of this, the belittlement."

First-degree murder can carry a sentence of 20 years to life in prison, said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Deatherage.