A man who once shared a cell with Thomas Svekla told an Edmonton courtroom Tuesday that the accused told him a woman found dead in a duffel bag died when they were smoking crack cocaine.

Jerry Wetherelt testified Tuesday in Svekla's double murder trial. Svekla is accused of murdering Rachel Quinney, 19, and Theresa Innes, 36. Both women were sex-trade workers.

"He was smoking crack with them and she died so he wrapped her body in a duffel bag and drove it to Edmonton," Wetherelt said outside the courtroom.

Under cross-examination, the defence questioned Wetherelt about why he told police he barely ever talked with the accused.

A prison guard testified that he saw the two men speak at length.

"Everything I said was the truth, I got no reason to lie," Wetherelt told CTV.

In other testimony, another former cellmate of Thomas Svekla told police Svekla told him a "scary story'' about killing a prostitute.

Asked in court Tuesday about his conversations with Svekla, Justin Delorme repeatedly insisted that while he recalled talking to the accused murderer while sharing a cell and riding a court van, he could remember absolutely nothing that was said.

But when Crown and defence lawyers read him passages from the transcript of an audiotaped interview he gave to police in 2006, Delorme admitted he told police about the story and was telling the truth at the time.

"He's like, you guys want to hear a horror story, or something like that. And he was telling me...he killed a prostitute in Strathcona,'' Delorme tells police in the transcript.

The judge hearing Svekla's case has already heard testimony from another prostitute that she and Svekla were smoking crack in a field in Strathcona County east of Edmonton in 2004 when Svekla told her he had just found Quinney's body. The remains of Innes were found two years later in a hockey bag inside Svekla's sister's garage.

Delorme told officers that Svekla also told him he intended to kill another prostitute outside Edmonton, but forgot he had put the first woman so close to the same spot, and decided against it when the intended victim stumbled across her body.

"Yeah, he said that he killed, he killed that girl, and he said he was taking that other girl there to kill her, or something,'' he told police.

Under cross-examination, Delorme admitted that he told police Svekla later said he was just joking, and that he originally brushed the comment off as blustering "jail talk'' aimed at scaring another inmate.

Delorme testified that he saw Svekla one more time after his 2006 arrest for killing Innes. Delorme said he saw Svekla in a court hallway after hearing news of his arrest and taunted him, calling him names.

"He said, `The only way I'll get convicted of this is if you rat me out,''' Delorme recalled.

Queen's Bench Justice Sterling Sanderman allowed the transcripts to be read to Delorme. The judge said it was "somewhat incomprehensible'' that Delorme could have read the transcripts an hour before testifying but still not remember anything. Sanderman said it suggested an "unwillingness'' to remember, rather than an inability.

Defence lawyer Robert Shaigec also read passages from the transcript and suggested Delorme couldn't fully remember what happened one month after speaking to Svekla, let alone years after.

"What was he saying? I can't, I can't really remember. I smoke a lot of weed, and I have kind of a bad memory,'' Delorme said at the time.

Shaigec also read comments by police saying they first spoke with Delorme because Svekla had suggested he may have been involved with Innes's death.

Earlier in the day, the chief toxicologist with the medical examiner's office testified about the levels of cocaine found in the bodies of both Quinney and Innes.

Dr. Graham Jones told court that both women had levels of cocaine that suggested heavy recreational use. He said due to the high level, he couldn't rule out that the drug contributed to either of their deaths, but that they were on the low side of levels that have been found in people who have overdosed.

Another man also testified Svekla talked nonchalantly about finding a body.

Kirby Auger said Svekla talked to him when there were both in holding cells in a High Level jail.

He said Svekla told him he had found a body with one of his friends after they spent the night smoking crack.

"He had a smile on his face," Auger said.

He also testified he overheard Svekla telling another person in the small cell about his past.

"He was saying that's how easy it is to kill a person," Auger said.

With files from David Ewasuk