ATHENS, Ala. (WHNT) — A Limestone County judge has rejected a defense motion to suppress statements Mason Sisk made to investigators following the discovery that five of his family members had been fatally shot in Elkmont in September 2019.

Sisk was 14 at the time of the killings and he is set to go on trial — for the second time — on capital murder charges beginning April 17. His first trial ended in a mistrial after prosecutors informed the court that a crime lab had cracked open the password to Sisk’s mother’s cell phone. That notice came during the trial prompting Limestone County Circuit Judge Chad Wise to declare a mistrial.

The judge’s new ruling Thursday will allow prosecutors to show the jury Sisk’s interview with investigators — including former Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely — the night of the killings. During that interview, investigators pushed Sisk to describe what happened and he insisted for an extended period that he was downstairs playing video games, heard a noise and then ran upstairs and saw a car driving away.

He said he called his girlfriend before calling 911.

At one point, he told investigators he didn’t check on his family because he assumed they were dead. Blakely expressed skepticism over Sisk’s account and the teen eventually said, “I did it.”

He didn’t provide details of the shooting.

The defense had argued the recording should not be allowed into evidence because Sisk was held in custody for more than an hour by deputies and asked questions, without being read his Miranda rights. He was also questioned without an adult being called to sit in on his interview.

Wise rejected those arguments. The judge also rejected the argument that the alleged murder weapon, a 9mm pistol that investigators say was found down the road from the house the following morning, should be barred from evidence because it came from the same interview.

The judge set a hearing for March 10 on the issue of defense access to Mary Sisk’s phone. Sisk’s lawyers were given a hard drive with the contents of the phone from prosecutors, but the defense argues it did not get the entire file.

The judge also said he has not yet ruled on whether a University of Alabama in Huntsville professor Dr. Jeffrey Neuschatz will be allowed to testify as an expert witness for the defense. Neuschatz testified at a hearing in January on the subject of coerced confessions. The prosecution argues he is not an expert in that area.