Jesse Dee Wise spoke to detectives for about seven hours before admitting to killing six members of his family in their Leola home, investigators said during a court hearing Monday.

He then described the gruesome slayings, according to investigators, who interrogated Wise for a total of 11 hours.

Wise's confession was not read during the hearing, which was held to determine if it can be used by prosecutors during his trial.

At one point during the hearing, the judge admonished Wise's attorney because his client had apparently fallen asleep.

Describing Wise's confession, East Lampeter Township Detective Joseph Edgell said, "He (Wise) spoke softly in a monotonous, even voice."

"There was no emotion. There were a few times when he laughed, but other than that …".

Police allege Wise killed his cousins, Skyler Wise, 19, and Chance Wise, 5; his uncle, Jesse James Wise, 17; two aunts, Wanda Wise, 45, and Agnes Arlene Wise, 43; and his grandmother, Emily Wise, 64, in the family home at 81 E. Main St.

Prosecutors allege he beat, stabbed and strangled the victims on or about April 9 and then continued to live in the home, using their money and credit cards to shop, buy food and stay at a motel with his girlfriend.

Edgell and state police Trooper Gerard Sauers said Monday they obtained a 46-page statement about the massacre from Wise in which he admits to killing his relatives.

Wise's attorney, John A. Kenneff, wants all of Wise's statements to detectives barred from the trial.

Kenneff contends Wise was not read a Miranda warning against self-incrimination before he was interviewed. He also contends police did not have probable cause to stop Wise's vehicle and detain him after police discovered the bodies.

Assistant District Attorney Craig Stedman said Monday police read Miranda warnings to Wise four times while questioning him.

One officer admitted during the hearing, however, that he had failed to read Wise his rights shortly after he was taken into custody.

Lancaster County Judge David L. Ashworth will decide what evidence prosecutors are permitted to use at his trial, which has yet to be scheduled.

Wise is charged with six counts of criminal homicide and one count of attempted homicide. Stedman is seeking the death penalty.

Four police officers testified about their roles in the investigation.

The six bodies were discovered April 12 after John Adams, a relative of the Wise family, contacted police.

Adams had been asked to check on the family by his grandfather, Jessie L. Wise, because they had not been heard from for days. Jesse Wise, who lives in New York, also is the grandfather of the accused killer.

East Lampeter Township police Officer Samuel Sanger was sent to the Leola home, where he encountered Adams, Jesse Dee Wise and Angie Gillogly, a 16-year-old friend of Wise's.

Jesse Dee Wise seemed "nervous," Sanger said.

Wise initially told Sanger he did not know the whereabouts of his family but later said they were on a trip in a new car his grandmother had bought, Sanger said.

While Adams and Sanger checked the house, Wise and Gillogly fled in a car parked at the home.

"About halfway down (the basement steps) I detected an odor of a deceased body," Sanger said. "I saw multiple bodies on the basement floor covered with blankets.

"At the base of the steps, behind one of the victims, there was a blood drag mark."

After the bodies were found, police broadcast a description of the car with instructions to stop a male driver and female passenger for questioning.

The bulletin also warned that the pair could be armed, East Lampeter Township police Officer Kenneth Crouse said.

Crouse stopped Wise and Gillogly about 2:30 p.m. April 12 on Horseshoe Road near Hartman Station Road.

Crouse and Officer Christopher Jones handcuffed Wise and Gillogly and took them to the East Lampeter police station. Wise was wanted on a warrant from Berks County for failing to appear for court, police said.

Crouse said he forgot to read Wise his Miranda warnings when they first arrived at the police station.

"I got caught up in patting him down and searching him, and I did not give him his rights," Crouse said.

When Edgell and Sauers first started interviewing Wise, they thought Crouse had read him his Miranda warnings, according to testimony.

They did read him his rights when they discovered they had not previously been read to him, according to testimony.

The confession that Kenneff wants the judge to bar from the trial came shortly after 12:15 a.m. April 13, according to testimony.

Before the confession, Wise had been vague with Edgell and Sauers about who killed his family members, saying things like, "I could've done it, but I don't think I did. I'm just trying to figure it out," according to testimony.

The confession came after Wise had finished smoking several cigarettes outside the East Lampeter Township police station and walked back into the interview room, according to testimony. Edgell then asked him another question.

"I asked Mr. Wise, 'Did you remember anything?,' " Edgell said. "It was a shot in the dark to see if he would give me anything."

"Yes, a lot" Wise told him, Edgell said.

Wise put his head down on his folded arms on the table, Edgell said, before Edgell left the room to get Sauers. Wise then used the rest room as the detectives prepared to resume the interview.

They put a box of doughnuts in front of Wise and read him his Miranda warnings, according to testimony.

"(Wise) ate doughnuts while I went back over his rights," Edgell said. "The voice went soft, below a casual conversation, with him describing the murders. We asked things like, 'What happened then? What did they do?' "

After Wise described the violence, Edgell asked Wise if he "felt relief to get it off your chest?"

"I feel some relief," Edgell said Wise told him. "It's not really going to kick in until later on."

Two days after the killings, police allege Wise planned to go to New York and kill his grandfather. His car, however, broke down west of Philadelphia.

The hearing is scheduled to resume this morning with additional testimony from Edgell.