Jurors will begin hearing on Thursday how and why 33-year-old Daniel Sylvester killed his next-door neighbour Alicia Ross.

Crown prosecutor Kelly Wright told jurors the series of taped interviews will include Sylvester's confession and his reasons behind the brutal beating of the 25-year-old woman. 

In Wednesday's testimony, Ross's former boyfriend said he believed he would be arrested after the young woman disappeared from her Markham home because he was the prime suspect.

Sean Hine said he was relieved when Ross's next-door neighbour Sylvester surrendered about five weeks after she went missing two summers ago.

The court was shown graphic photos of Ross's remains Wednesday morning and warned that more would be shown during the afternoon session.

Ross's mother Sharon Fortis stayed in the courtroom while the disturbing images were displayed, but at least one family member left the room.

Sylvester's mother Olga was in the courtroom for the first time.

Hine, 30, started a second day of testimony via video link from Florida where he now lives.

He was initially hounded by the media after Ross disappeared on Aug. 17, 2005, but suspicion turned to sympathy after Sylvester's arrest.

Hine denied several times that he fabricated evidence to bolster murder charges against Sylvester in exchange for help with his own impaired driving charge.

Defence lawyer David Hobson said Hine placed a drinking glass, sandals and a cigarette butt in the backyard of Ross's home just outside a sliding door. He said it was an attempt to show that her killer had deliberately attacked the woman. Hobson insisted it was designed to help police build a stronger case against Sylvester.

Hine said he asked police to "help him out" with an impaired driving charge he received days after Ross disappeared, but said he decided to help investigators after Sylvester was charged because he wanted to "do what's right."

Hobson also suggested Hine came forward to confirm a police theory that the motion sensor security light that came on whenever somebody walked to the backyard between the Ross and Sylvester homes was turned off the night she was killed.

Hine testified the light was off that night, but said he couldn't remember whether police ever told him about the motion light theory.

The Crown suggests the light was turned off, which establishes Sylvester intended to kill Ross on the pathway.

Fidgety and confrontational at times throughout much of his testimony, Hine told the court he initially didn't want to testify. He even asked police after Sylvester's arrest why they needed him.

"In a way I was angry because they tore my life apart," Hine said. "I was upset. I was treated like crap for that month."

Hine, Ross's new boyfriend at the time, said he loved Ross and was at her house moments before police say Sylvester beat her to death between their homes.

Ross said he had "a bad feeling" when he called her cellphone a little while later and she didn't pick up.

The next morning, he went to Ross' home and found the glass she was drinking from on the ground, and her sandals strewn on the yard. Hine said he called 911.

The Crown said Sylvester confessed to killing Ross and dumping her body in wooded areas near Coboconk and Manilla.

While Sylvester has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, the 33-year-old tried last week to plead guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter, a request denied by the Crown.

Jurors are expected to hear Sylvester's lengthy taped confession as early as Wednesday.

With a report from CTV's John Musselman and files from the Canadian Press