Report: Dotson Says He Acted in Self-Defense

WACO, Texas – The Baylor University (search) basketball player accused of shooting a former teammate insisted he was not a bad person and said "some things happen that aren't in your control."

Carlton Dotson (search), in a jailhouse interview with The Dallas Morning News, suggested that the slaying of Patrick Dennehy (search) was in self-defense and said he had been hearing voices.

"If someone points a gun at you and shoots and it doesn't go off, what would you do?" he asked. "If someone is pointing a gun at you and they start putting more bullets into the gun, what would you do?"

Asked what he did, Dotson only laughed and did not answer, the newspaper reported.

Dennehy had been missing about six weeks when his decomposed body was found Friday in a grassy field four miles from the Baylor campus. Investigators had been searching for the 21-year-old at a nearby site police say Dotson provided to them after his July 21 arrest.

Dotson told FBI agents that he shot Dennehy after the player tried to shoot him, according to the arrest warrant affidavit. A preliminary autopsy report released Wednesday said Dennehy was killed by gunshot wounds to the head, and listed homicide as the cause of death.

Dennehy's girlfriend, Jessica De La Rosa, told The Associated Press she doesn't believe the shooting was in self-defense. De La Rosa said Dotson was being "cowardly" in his account to the newspaper.

"For him (Dotson) just to laugh at something like that? God help him," De La Rosa told the AP from her Albuquerque, N.M., home Wednesday night.

She said Dennehy sometimes got into a "tiff" with a teammate on the basketball court but never would have pretended or tried to shoot anyone. "He understood the seriousness of guns," De La Rosa said. "He would not turn and jokingly point a gun at somebody. He would not do that."

After his arrest, Dotson told The Associated Press that he "didn't confess to anything." Since then, Dotson has not responded to a request from the AP for an interview.

Dotson, 21, remains jailed without bond in his home state of Maryland and awaits extradition to Texas, which could take as long as three months.

"I'm really not a bad person," he told the newspaper. "Some things happen that aren't in your control."

Dotson told the News in Thursday's editions that his life has been threatened and that he has been hearing voices that say, "We are many. We are strong. We are behind you. We support you. We are ready for war ... a spiritual war." He also confirmed that Baylor paid for him to see a Waco therapist because of his increasingly erratic behavior.

Dotson was placed under suicide watch Tuesday as a precaution, said correction officer Sgt. Charles Mench. The suicide watch was lifted Wednesday, he said.