Dallas ? Slain Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy’s family Thursday angrily disputed his accused killer’s belief that he’d been “betrayed” by his one-time friend and teammate, saying that Carlton Dotson’s apparent self-defense claims were contradicted by his own behavior.

In a jailhouse interview Wednesday, Dotson suggested that a gun was first pointed at him — an account that parallels what police documents alleged he told a cousin last month when he said he shot Dennehy in the head with a 9 mm pistol after an argument.

Brian Brabazon, Dennehy’s stepfather, noted Thursday that Dotson was suspected of fleeing Texas after his teammate’s June 12 disappearance and went more than a month before he gave police information to find the 21-year-old’s body.

“The thing is, he knew he committed a crime. I don’t care what he says now. I’m sure Patrick would not point a gun at anybody, even in jest,” said Brabazon, of Carson City, Nev.

“If Carlton is trying to claim self-defense, why didn’t he go to police when he committed the crime? Why did he shoot twice? He wanted Patrick dead, and that’s what he did. He got what he wanted. And now he’s trying to pull self-defense and mental deficiency and all that stuff. He wasn’t mental,” he said. “It was murder.”

In his interview at the Kent County, Md., jail, where he is being held on the murder charge, Dotson made repeated references to religion and to hearing voices assuring him of support in “a spiritual war.”

Dotson’s attorney, Grady Irvin Jr. of St. Petersburg, Fla., was not present at the interview and later told the Associated Press it was “journalistically irresponsible to report inferences.”

Thursday, in a written statement, Irvin said instead of identifying herself at the county jail as being from the the DMN, the reporter represented herself as a Christian wanting to pray for him.

Stuart Wilk, vice president/managing editor of the DMN, disputed that and gave this account: The reporter, Shani George, an intern in the Belo Capital Bureau in Washington, went to the jail during its regular public visiting hours.

She told the jail’s desk officer that she hoped to interview Dotson and handed the officer a copy of her press credentials and an unsealed note to Dotson that identified her as working for the DMN and requesting an interview.

After Dotson consented to see her and was taken to a visiting room, she immediately introduced herself as a reporter for the DMN, and Dotson said he was willing to answer her questions.

He talked to her by phone from behind a glass partition in the visiting room, where jail rules do not allow electronic recording devices. Dotson apparently noticed a small gold cross necklace she was wearing and asked whether she was a Christian. She said she was.

The interview lasted 10 minutes, and she called her editors in Dallas immediately after that, relating the visit and Dotson’s direct quotes that were still fresh in her mind.