SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – The deaf woman charged with killing another deaf woman changed her story several times and acknowledged being with the victim the day she was last seen alive, according to a videotaped police interview.

Lawyers for Daphne Wright, 43, hope to keep the tape out of her trial, scheduled to start in January, on grounds she didn’t understand her rights.

She has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, first-degree murder and murder while committing a felony for the February slaying of Darlene VanderGiesen, 42, also of Sioux Falls.

In the videotape, shown Sept. 12 at a pretrial motions hearing, Wright first said she didn’t see VanderGiesen on the day she disappeared, then said they met at the Pizza Hut where VanderGiesen’s pickup was later found.

Wright went on to say that she and VanderGiesen had fought weeks earlier because Wright, who is a lesbian, suspected VanderGiesen of trying to break up Wright’s relationship with Sallie Collins.

VanderGiesen was heterosexual and was a friend of Collins, Wright said.

An autopsy determined that VanderGiesen, who disappeared Feb. 1, was killed by either suffocation or a blow to the head. Wright was arrested Feb. 10 after a search of her basement yielded bone fragments, muscle and fat that matched DNA taken from VanderGiesen’s toothbrush, according to court papers and testimony.

Wright said she hauled some old carpet and other things from her basement to a Dumpster next to a Kmart days after VanderGiesen disappeared.

Investigators found VanderGiesen’s legs and lower torso in the Sioux Falls landfill. Later, road workers found the rest of her body in a ditch near Beaver Creek, Minn.

In the Feb. 7 interview, Wright wore a cap and talked to detective Mike Olson through sign language. The interpreter can’t be seen but her voice is audible.

Wright initially told Olson that she and VanderGiesen fought about Collins but had resolved their differences.

“I was jealous because she always came over there and I thought she was trying to destroy the relationship – and I was wrong,” Wright said.

Wright said she and VanderGiesen had met for the first time just weeks earlier, didn’t know each other well and VanderGiesen mostly talked about an ex-boyfriend.

After the two reconciled, they were at Collins’ apartment Jan. 22 when they planned a surprise Valentine’s Day party for Collins, Wright said.

Olson challenged that, saying investigators recovered e-mails traced to an alias set up by Wright indicating she was still upset with VanderGiesen days later.

Wright denied setting up the alias, then admitted it – after blaming the messages on computer hackers.

She said the last time she saw VanderGiesen was Jan. 22 but later changed it to Feb. 1, the day VanderGiesen disappeared.

Wright said the two planned to meet at Pizza Hut that day to discuss the surprise party but she canceled because she didn’t have gas in her vehicle.

Then Wright said she did meet VanderGiesen but they saw each other for less than five minutes in the parking lot because Wright didn’t have any money to eat, so they agreed to meet later.

Another time she told the detective she hadn’t planned to eat.

“Why are you changing your story now?” Olson said at one point.

“I was scared because you’re blaming me,” Wright said.

Repeatedly she denied having anything to do with VanderGiesen’s disappearance.

“I’m not guilty of anything,” she said.

During the interview, Olson once told Wright she was free to go at any time, but she stayed.

After more than 90 minutes, she asked for a lawyer and the interview ended.

Olson testified that Wright then smoked cigarettes, went to the bathroom and got something to eat while investigators had a search warrant drafted.

“After the defendant said she wanted a lawyer, did you interview her?” asked Tom Hensley, deputy state’s attorney.

“No,” Olson replied.

A defense witness who is an expert on the deaf testified that it’s borderline whether Wright can understand what’s going on in the courtroom.

McCay Vernon of Florida said Wright reads at the third-grade level but either was deaf at birth or at 10 months of age, when she came down with rubella.

The rubella may also have caused some brain damage, though Wright has above-average intelligence, Vernon said.

She understands sign language well but may miss some things because it takes two to four times longer to say something through signing as normal speech, he said.

And Wright doesn’t easily grasp the definition of some legal terms, such as Miranda rights, Vernon said.

“When you use the term ‘rights,’ they mean right like to the right hand or right like correct,” he said.

Circuit Judge Bradley Zell concluded Wright could understand what’s happening in the courtroom, which is outfitted with projection screens that print out what everyone says and where interpreters are at the front of the room.