OAKLAND (BCN) — A police sergeant testified today that a then-18-year-old youth admitted that he stabbed a 72-year-old woman in Berkeley in 2014 and

inflicted wounds that led to her death.

On the witness stand in the preliminary hearing for Kamau Berlin, who is now 20, Berkeley police Sgt. Peter Hong said Berlin’s admission came when he and another officer left Berlin alone in a police car with a hidden tape recorder running.

Berlin had been arrested for allegedly attacking Nancy Jo McClellan in the vicinity of Russell and Otis streets in Berkeley at about 4:30 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2014.

Hong said Berlin, who had previously invoked his right to have an attorney when officers tried to question him, “was thinking out loud and verbalizing his thoughts” in his comments on the tape recording.

Hong said Berlin said he “didn’t want to go to jail for life and admitted to killing the lady, that he murdered and stabbed the old lady.”

Hong testified, “He said, ‘I did this, I murdered her.'”

Berlin also said, “The police did not find the brass knuckles,” according to Hong.

Several of Berlin’s family members cried and temporarily left the courtroom when Hong testified about his alleged confession.

McClellan, an Emeryville woman who had been attending a wedding at the nearby Berkeley Zen Center, didn’t die immediately after she was stabbed but never regained consciousness and died about three weeks later, on Oct. 8, 2014.

A small group of her friends is attending Berlin’s hearing.Berlin is charged with murder, attempted rape, attempted carjacking, attempted robbery and elder abuse resulting in death.

In addition, he faces three special circumstance allegations: committing a murder during an attempted robbery, committing a murder during an attempted carjacking and committing a murder during an attempted rape.

Hong, who was the chief investigator for the case, said Berlin ran away after he allegedly attacked McClellan but a fellow officer was able to arrest him before he was able to jump over a fence.

Hong said it appeared that Berlin was injured and was bleeding but Berlin told him that “it was fake blood because the night before he and his brother had been decorating for Halloween.”

Hong testified, “We thought that was odd because it was only Sept. 19 so that raised suspicions for us.”

Hong said Berlin’s knuckles were swollen so officers took photographs of them.

Hong said he ordered that a sexual assault examination be performed on McClellan because her undergarments had been pulled down.

Berkeley police got another surreptitious recording of Berlin two days after the incident by placing two hidden tape recorders at the Berkeley Jail’s visitor booth when Berlin’s mother visited him, Hong said.

In that conversation, Berlin told his mother that he attacked McClellan because he didn’t have a ride home and no one was answering his phone calls, according to Hong.

Hong said Berlin told his mother that, “He saw a lady in a car and started hitting her to get her out of her car.”

Hong said Berlin’s mother was incredulous when he told her that he had used brass knuckles to attack the woman, exclaiming, “Brass knuckles?

Brass knuckles, oh my God!”

Hong said Berlin told his mother that he had tossed the brass knuckles over a fence but police later returned to the scene and found the brass knuckles, as well as a knife that had been attached to them.

Hong was the last witness in Berlin’s two-day preliminary hearing but Berlin’s attorneys have filed a motion to suppress some of the evidence in his case.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Rhonda Burgess, who is presiding over the case, will wait until May 4 to rule on whether prosecutors have presented sufficient evidence to have Berlin ordered to stand trial.