A portion of Brett Hooghkirk’s taped confession to killing Lisa Garretson was played in court Thursday during the preliminary hearing on added charges.

Hooghkirk was charged last week with two counts of aggravated battery, and DeKalb County State’s Attorney Mike Coghlan filed another battery charge just before Thursday’s hearing.

Coghlan played a five-minute portion of the video tape as Hooghkirk, wearing a silver cross and his orange prison uniform neatly rolled up at the ankle, watched. At the end of the video tape, Hooghkirk’s attorney Bill Brady threw his papers in the air but caught them before they could fall to the ground.

On the video tape, Hooghkirk told DeKalb Police detective Bill Thompson that on Aug. 21, 1988, he was at Garretson’s apartment and she was “being a bitch” and kneed him in the groin.

Hooghkirk said he found a clothes iron in a hamper at the side of Garretson’s bed and ‘whacked’ her over the head with it, though she screamed ‘no,’ causing her to collapse.

Coghlan commented on Hooghkirk’s muscular physique and said Hooghkirk enjoyed lifting weights and had been a high school football player and a wrestler. “A clothes iron in the hand of someone with his physical ability would have considerable force,” Coghlan said.

Associate Judge Robert C. Jenkins ruled there was probable cause for the battery charges.

The trial should begin as planned on Dec. 3, Coghlan said.

The battery charges were added after the state interviewed Larry Blum, the pathologist who autopsied Garretson, last week.

The charges were necessary because the state would not be able to present the iron incident in court without them, Coghlan said.

A pretrial conference was set for Nov. 14. The scheduling of a judge to preside over the case might be settled then, Coghlan said.

Hooghkirk has been held without bond in DeKalb County Jail since Jan. 22.