SAN DIEGO — A life sentence in an adult prison or a false confession. These were the choices teenager Joshua Treadway believed he faced when police interrogated him about the murder of a 12-year-old girl, according to his testimony Wednesday.

"I felt like there was no way out. I knew that I was telling the truth, but everyone around me didn't believe me," Joshua Treadway said during a preliminary hearing for Richard Tuite, the man now charged with killing Stephanie Crowe in 1998.

"I felt like I had no other choice," he added.

Treadway's confession, made five years ago when he was a 15-year-old high school freshman, is at the heart of the hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to try Tuite, a schizophrenic drifter, for Stephanie's fatal stabbing.

His lawyers claim the accounts Treadway gave during 22-hours of videotaped confession as well as incriminating statements Stephanie's brother, Michael, made to police are proof that the pair and a third friend, Aaron Houser, are responsible for the slaying.

But prosecutors contend the confessions were forced by police detectives whose tunnel vision prevented them from seeing Tuite as a viable suspect. DNA tests later found spots of Stephanie's blood on his shirt and prosecutors dropped charges against the teenagers.

In the videos, shown in court in the days leading up to Treadway's testimony, he showed a range of emotions from a 15-minute crying jag to gushing declarations of love for his father to ebullient praising of God when officers concluded the interview. On the stand, however, Treadway, now a 20-year-old college student, was rarely animated.

Taking the stand for the second day, Treadway said that before his arrest on murder charges he was a naive boy who respected the police and had never heard of Miranda rights.

He said he was an easy mark for detectives who gave him a bogus lie detector test they billed as 98 percent accurate and terrified him with lurid tales of prison life.

One detective, he said, told him the prison where he might be sent "was a series of daily beatings and rapes, of being sold and traded for a carton of cigarettes."

Treadway said he became "more and more irrational" as the hours of questioning dragged on and soon began manufacturing a story to please his interrogators. He said they convinced him that if he admitted a lesser role in the crime, he would be a witness rather than a defendant.

Under questioning from prosecutor Gary Schons, Treadway, once a Dungeons & Dragons enthusiast, said his prowess at the role-playing game helped him spin a tale for investigators.

"You have to be very good at narration and hypotheticallization and almost rapid-fire problem solving," he said. "I was working with a set of facts [investigators] gave me."

But instead of crafting a story of sorcerers and castles, Treadway said, he told detectives that he stood lookout at the Crowe family home the night of Jan. 21, 1998, as Houser and Michael Crowe snuck into Stephanie's room and stabbed her nine times.

He said he tailored his account to match facts about the case he read in the newspaper and prompts the detectives gave him. If they repeatedly suggested a scenario, he would eventually incorporate it into his story, Treadway said.

One questioner "kept insisting that I must've been in the house. And at that point, I was so broken down, my will to fight the officers had just completely diminished. So I said I was in the house," Treadway said.

After murder charges were filed, Crowe and Treadway recanted. Treadway said prosecutors offered to drop charges against him if he testified against his alleged co-conspirators, but he "refused that deal immediately."

"It was wrong to put my friends who were innocent in prison for the rest of their lives," he said.

On cross-examination, which is to continue Thursday, defense lawyer Brad Patton suggested Treadway had vital reasons to lie about his involvement. Treadway acknowledged that prosecutors could still file murder charges against him if he admitted any involvement.

Patton also questioned him about a multimillion-dollar suit his family has filed against the agencies who originally investigated the murder.

"You are seeking money damages?" asked Patton.

"I'm seeking justice," Treadway retorted.