By Joseph A. Slobodzian, The Philadelphia Inquirer

PHILADELPHIA — He complained that he was “being railroaded” and did not wish to testify in his defense.

Nevertheless, Marcellus “Ant North” Jones spent an hour on the witness stand Tuesday, denying he had anything to do with the 2008 robbery and killing of teaching fellow Beau Zabel — an Austin, Minnesota, native — or the subsequent slaying of a 19-year-old who prosecutors say was Jones’ getaway driver.

“I did not wish to testify,” Jones told the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury of 10 women and two men hearing his murder trial. “I was forced to testify because they allowed me no way to disprove this.”

Then, Jones jumped into his defense: Those who testified earlier that he had boasted about killing Zabel and Tyrek Taylor – including Jones’ sister – were either lying or mistaken.

Jones even argued that the official court transcript of his 2012 trial in which he was convicted of murdering Taylor was inaccurate.

“I never gave this testimony,” Jones told Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Juliano Coelho. “This is somehow, some kind of fraudulent document . . . That’s a mistake by the stenographer.”

Jones argued – often interrupting his attorney, Richard J. Giuliani, and Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi – that he has been prevented from calling witnesses he wanted to. Jones said he also denied to present evidence from his cellphone that would prove he was not near the murder scene the moment the 23-year-old Zabel was killed: just before 1:30 a.m. on June 15, 2008.

Zabel was gunned down the 800 block of Ellsworth Street in South Philadelphia while walking home after finishing a shift at a local Starbucks.

Jones, 37, finished his denial with: “Now, I am unwilling to answer any questions from the Commonwealth.”

The judge told Jones otherwise and said she would order the jury to disregard everything he had just said if he did not answer questions from the prosecutor.

Coelho then tried for most of the 60 minutes to get Jones to admit that he even knew the witnesses who testified that he acknowledged killing Zabel and Taylor — including his sister, her longtime boyfriend and an ex-friend and former fellow inmate who said he had known Jones since childhood.

“I know of them but I don’t know them,” Jones said, adding that his sister only “testified under duress.”

After Jones left the witness stand, Giuliani put on the record that he worked with Jones’ family to find the four witnesses his client said would disprove the case against him. Two lived in South Carolina and could not be located, another could not be found and the fourth was a fugitive.

Giuliani and Assistant District Attorney Tracie Gaydos also stipulated that an official of Jones’ cellphone carrier, T-Mobile, reported it no longer had cellphone records for any numbers before 2012.

Jones’ testimony ended the defense case, which began late Monday. The lawyers are to give their closing arguments later today although it is not clear if the judge will instruct the jury and let them begin deliberating.

Zabel, a Drexel University teaching fellow, was set to start teaching that fall and had moved to Philadelphia from his hometown in Minnesota six weeks prior to his death. Investigators believe Jones killed him to steal his iPod.

The case sat cold for five years because of a lack of DNA or other physical evidence linking anyone to the crime.

A series of ballistics, DNA, and crime-scene investigation experts reiterated that Monday as they testified as the final government witnesses.

Prosecutors say Jones incriminated himself through admissions to friends and relatives about his involvement in Zabel’s death and killing Taylor to prevent him from talking.

Jones is serving a life prison term without parole for killing Taylor in 2008.