A judge delayed the first-degree murder trial of junior Daniel Murray yesterday after prosecutors admitted taped evidence of Murray telling a fellow prisoner details about the arson that killed senior Michael Scrocca last year.

Defense attorneys said they received both audio and videotape of statements Murray allegedly made to someone they called a “jailhouse snitch” and asked the court for more time to review the evidence because it could further implicate Murray in the crime. Letters sent from the jail by Murray are also the subject of a newly obtained search warrant, prosecutors said, which would also need to be examined by the defense during discovery.

Judge Thomas Smith was set to decide on whether police had legally obtained a confession from Murray shortly after his arrest, but that decision was delayed until a pre-trial hearing on Jan. 16. The trial is now set to begin on Jan. 29.

Assistant State’s Attorney John Maloney declined to say whether investigators orchestrated the effort to tape Murray speaking to someone in jail on three different occasions, but the additional evidence indicates a wider strategy by the state: Prosecutors may be looking to amass an array of circumstantial evidence that could be used to guide a jury toward convicting Murray.

Additional taped confessions could be useful at trial, because the fire may have erased much of the direct evidence that would be available in murders committed under different circumstances.

If all evidence survives a motion to suppress, defense attorney Bill Brennan will likely attempt to weaken the prosecution’s case by pointing out a lack of concrete evidence. In previous hearings, he has already said the first confession, which detailed a fire Murray allegedly set on the porch of Scrocca’s Princeton Avenue home last May, be thrown out because Prince George’s County detectives supposedly coerced and threatened Murray during interrogation.

In a separate ruling two weeks ago, Smith ruled against a defense motion to throw out a confession Murray gave during a bathroom break, saying that he took Brown’s word over Murray’s because Murray had given conflicting statements.

With Murray’s confession still on ice, the delay in trial adds on to the more than one year of investigation that took place before police arrested their first suspect. Investigators have said they were given an anonymous tip indicating Murray was involved in the fire and immediately began questioning him and his friends. He was arrested on his way to class a few days later.

It was during a full day of questioning at a police station in Largo that detectives said Murray broke down during a trip to the bathroom and confessed to the murder. Murray waived his Miranda rights and the detectives recorded Murray’s statement.

A month ago, however, Murray claimed that the confession was a lie and that police had coerced him into it by threatening him that he would be “raped and sodomized” in jail if he didn’t help the detectives. Two weeks ago, the defense subjected detective Ben Brown to aggressive questioning over his account of what happened on the trip to the bathroom, arguing that there was no proof Murray admitted anything outside of the recordings.

If the earlier statement is thrown out, the prosecution may be banking on the new jail recordings to solidify their case against Murray.

Contact reporter Owen Praskievicz at praskieviczdbk@gmail.com.