RADFORD -- In her second day of testimony, the key witness in the capital murder case against James Jones II told jurors that, although she has lied repeatedly about the events the evening Ken Henry was killed, they can believe her now.

Kelly McKenzie Brubeck, 24, was on the witness stand in Radford Circuit Court for about two hours Wednesday and nearly eight hours Thursday. During most of that time, defense attorneys played recorded police interviews with Brubeck and phone calls she made.

She will return to the witness stand as court reconvenes this morning.

Brubeck and Jones, also 24, were the only people in Brubeck's Davis Street apartment on July 5, 2006, when 39-year-old Henry was fatally shot. Brubeck at first confessed to the crime but later said it was Jones who shot Henry.

Jones, who is known by the name Jay, is charged with capital murder and other crimes related to the robbery and killing of Henry. With a conviction, capital murder is punishable only by life in prison or the death penalty.

It came to light Thursday that there is a connection between Brubeck and Henry. The father of one of Brubeck's children also fathered a child with Henry's ex-wife. Brubeck claims she had seen Henry but had never talked to him before the day he was killed, when she set up a fake drug deal with the intention of robbing him.

"A gun was never supposed to be involved," she testified Thursday. "I didn't know Jay's intentions at the end."

In recorded interviews with police after Henry's killing, Brubeck can be heard repeatedly swearing to God and swearing on the lives of her two children that she is the one who shot Henry.

Jimmy Turk, one of Jones' defense attorneys, reminded Brubeck that she had also sworn to God to tell the truth in court.

"Does it only count when you're in court?" Turk asked her.

Brubeck said swearing to God didn't mean much to her before but that it does now.

Turk implied that Radford police coaxed Brubeck into saying Jones shot Henry. He played a tape of an interview in which one officer can be heard saying, "I hope you're not putting yourself in a bad situation out of love."

Brubeck has testified that she lied to protect Jones because she is in love with him.

Turk asked her, "You're just using him like a piece of toilet paper, aren't you?"

"No, sir," Brubeck answered in the quiet monotone she has used throughout her testimony.

Turk said that at one point, Brubeck told someone she tried to hire a person to shove a broomstick up Jones' rear while he was in jail. He said that didn't sound like love to him.

Turk has also implied that Brubeck is lying to try to get a reduced prison sentence. She is charged with second-degree murder and other crimes, but a trial date has not been set.

Turk played a videotaped interview with Brubeck in which Radford Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Rehak told her that "some people have actually won back years of their lives" by testifying for the prosecution.

He also told her in that interview that detectives had already talked to everyone involved in the case and that he wanted her to tell the truth about what happened.

Also Thursday, Brubeck read excerpts from letters she said Jones sent her while she was in jail. In one of them, he wrote, "Without you they don't have anything on me."

In another, Jones mentioned that Brubeck could be helping police. He wrote, "If something was to happen to your mother, sister or kids, who would be to blame?" He signed it, "I love you. Merry Christmas."

Turk had argued at a motions hearing Monday that the letters shouldn't be admissible. Circuit Court Judge Joey Showalter ruled Thursday that Brubeck could read excerpts from them that included threats made to her, but that they couldn't be entered into evidence for jurors to read in their entirety.