Irwin Pentland Trial: Inmate says Pentland asked him to confess to crime

AUSTIN, Texas - An inmate who was incarcerated with a man on trial for the murder of an IBM executive said he tried to get him to take the fall for the crime.

This as testimony continued for the 2015 shooting death of Phillip Liberty continued.

On Monday the trial continued for the murder of 75-year-old Phillip Liberty with inmate Johnny Gilbert taking the stand.

Gilbert said while incarcerated with suspect Irwin Pentland,  Pentland tried to convince him to take the fall for the crime. 

"Me and him started walking around and he would tell me what I needed to know about the crime," said Gilbert.

Gilbert went through the confession plan revealing details only those directly involved in the case would seem to know.

"There was a rifle inside the closet and I took the rifle and I came out of the closet and I went up some stairs to the living room area and that's when I supposedly confronted the guy that lived there," said Gilbert. "I took a watch off the guy's wrist and I took, I drug the body to the garage area and placed the body behind a car in the garage and I went back in a started cleaning up the mess and I took the bloody rags that I used to clean up and put them in a trash can with a trash bag in it and I took the trash bag out and carried it back out to the woods."

One of the defense's theories is that Liberty's son Lucas, who inherited his money, had something to do with the murder.

Lucas testified that he was at work throughout the day on Nov. 18. 2015 and spent that night out of town. 

He described what happened upon his arrival to his father's home Nov. 19. after police located the body.

"I broke down in tears sat on the wall, cried. Called my mom," said Liberty.

Lead detective David Fugitt said it was clear Pentland was responsible for the crime from the beginning.

"The perfect murder that had been committed by the defendant in this case came crashing around him," said Fugitt.

Fugitt went over financial documents showing Pentland owed the Internal Revenue Service more than $100,000.

The motive is believed to be finances as Fugitt believes Pentland forged checks from Liberty's account totaling $22,000 before the murder.