KANSAS CITY, KAN. ? A man accused of killing three Kansas City, Kan., men in 2001 told investigators in a videotaped confession that voices in his head told him he would die if he didn’t eat human flesh.

In an hourlong videotape played for a Wyandotte County jury Wednesday, Marc V. Sappington, 25, told detectives he started hearing voices after smoking the hallucinogenic drug PCP in 2001. He said he only heard the voices while under the influence of drugs.

“They started telling me if I didn’t eat, I was going to die,” Sappington said in the videotape. “They said I had to eat flesh and blood if I want to live.”

Sappington is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Terry T. Green, 25; Michael Weaver Jr., 22; and Alton “Fred” Brown Jr., 16, in April 2001.

On the videotape, Sappington explained how he killed all three men, prompted by the voices in his head. After the first two killings, Sappington said, fear of getting caught prompted him to flee and kept him from eating his victims.

Sappington said Green became his first victim when he stopped by Sappington’s house unexpectedly one night. Prosecutors believe that was on April 7, though Green’s body wasn’t found until April 10 — the same day Weaver and Brown were killed.

Sappington said he stabbed Green in the chest with a knife and was going to drink some of his blood, but he got nervous when he thought his neighbors might have seen him with the body. He said he loaded Green’s body into Green’s car and drove to Kansas City, Mo., where he left the vehicle in a parking lot and took a taxi back to Kansas.

Drugs, voices, deadlines

Sappington said he smoked some drugs a couple of days later and went to the home of his friend, Eric Fennix, who lived with his wife, Myah Fennix, his mother, Alice Wilson, and his younger stepbrother, Weaver.

Eric Fennix was asleep, he said, so he left. But on his way out, he grabbed a knife off the kitchen counter.

Sappington said he smoked some more drugs and started hearing the voices again. This time, they gave him a deadline: “I heard the voices tell me it’s do or die. If I don’t eat, I’m going to die within six or seven hours.”

He said he set the alarm on his watch so he would know when time was running out.

He then wandered around awhile before going back to Fennix’s house and waiting outside, Sappington said. When Weaver came out of the house early the morning of April 10, Sappington said, “The voice gave me something to eat.”

Sappington admitted stabbing Weaver in the back with the knife he took from the kitchen. Weaver then tried to flee in his car but hit a pole. Sappington was close behind.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to eat; this is my food,”‘ Sappington said. Frightened by the noise from the crash, Sappington decided to leave, but ripped off part of Weaver’s shirt so he could at least drink the blood.

Earlier Wednesday, a deputy coroner who performed an autopsy on Weaver said the knife went completely through the body, puncturing his lung, aorta and other organs.

Sappington said he ran home, and when he got there his heart was pounding and his head was throbbing. Then the alarm on his watch went off.

Third victim

Around 7 a.m., Sappington said, he lured Brown into his house with the suggestion the two smoke marijuana. They went into the basement, where Sappington said he shot Brown.

“I was drinking his blood,” Sappington said on the videotape. “I was licking it off the floor, and I had to throw up, but I couldn’t because I had to eat.”

He said he had trouble eating Brown’s leg raw, so he went upstairs, fried it in a skillet and ate most of it.

After his mother left the house later that morning, Sappington said, he took an ax and started cutting up Brown’s body into small pieces to preserve it so he could eat it later. That way, he said, he wouldn’t have to kill anybody else.

Homicide Detective Greg Lawson said Sappington was arrested two days later while walking around Kansas City, Kan. Lawson testified that after about 45 minutes of questioning on April 12, Sappington started giving details about the murders.

Sappington’s trial continues Today in Wyandotte County District Court.