Norman LaRue insists he was asleep when Gordon Seybold's house burned to the ground and swears he had nothing to do with his death.

After nearly three months of listening to the first-degree murder case against him, LaRue took the stand in his own defence Monday.

He told the jury his girlfriend, Christina Asp, lied to criminals, who turned out to be undercover police officers, to make him sound impressive so they would welcome him into their gang.

Both Asp and LaRue were convinced by undercover officers that they were part of an organization of powerful criminals with the ability to cover up crimes.

The Yukon Supreme Court jury has spent months listening to secretly-recorded conversations of Asp and LaRue describing the night Seybold died.

But on the stand, LaRue insists he was lying and never wanted to be part of the criminal organization despite how those conversations make it sound.

The undercover operation focused on Asp for months in early 2009.

Police have told the jury they continued the ruse until the couple's arrest that August, so LaRue would be released from jail and convinced he had been offered a job with the family's hitman.

On the stand, LaRue said he was lying when he told the undercover officers about breaking into Seybold's Ibex Valley cabin and beating him with a baseball bat.

He told the court it wasn't until a jail visit in May 2009 — months after Asp had begun working with the undercover officers and more than a year after Seybold died — that he learned she had implicated him in a murder and that she was working with criminals.

He says Asp smuggled a letter to him in jail detailing what she had told the undercover officers and "needing me to memorize it.”

At first, he was angry, he testified.

"She began to cry. I didn't want her to cry.”

He testified that, while his girlfriend wanted him to become involved in the organization, he wasn't interested. He said he hoped to convince her to change her mind.

"So somehow you thought by getting yourself in, you could get Christina out?” asked his lawyer, Ray Dieno.

"Yes,” LaRue replied.

After getting out of jail, LaRue told the jury, he wanted to get his tickets for welding and lead a better life, not become involved with criminals.

It was something the couple fought about, he said.

LaRue testified he felt the need to go along with what Asp had already started.

"She told me there were very powerful criminals,” he testified. "She was scared that if I didn't go along, she would be killed, I would be killed and my sister would be killed.”

In separate recordings, both Asp and LaRue tell the undercover officers that LaRue confessed to his sister about killing Seybold.

LaRue now says that never happened.

In fact, much of what he said to the undercover officers came from that secret letter and was a lie, he said.

"Did you drive out to Ibex Valley and invade a cabin and bash someone's head in?” Dieno asked.

"No, I did not.”

"Did you light it on fire?” the lawyer asked.

"No, I did not.”

"Did you back into a tree (while leaving the scene of the fire)?”

"No, I did not.”

Larue also said he was lying when he told officers he and Asp took rifles and the bat from Seybold's cabin.

Two rifles and a bat with Seybold's blood were found at a rest stop near the Seybold cabin.

Seybold's home burned to the ground early on March 26, 2008. Human remains were found inside.

On the night of March 25, LaRue told the jury, he was at Asp's mother's house in Whitehorse drinking a little while Asp and her mother, Jessie, drank in another room.

He testified he fell asleep in front of a movie and believed Asp had fallen asleep next to him.

When he woke up on the morning of the 26th, Asp was naked and packing clothes into a garbage bag.

Undercover officers were told the couple stripped off their bloody clothes after attacking Seybold, packed them in garbage bags and later burned them.

That's another lie, Larue testified Monday.

On the recordings, both Asp and Larue say they killed Seybold because he had disrespected Asp's mother.

On the stand, LaRue testified that when she was drinking, Jessie Asp often spoke about Seybold.

"She wanted to beat this guy down and light his place on fire like she's seen on a CSI show,” he said.

LaRue testified he usually left the room when that kind of talk started.

Jessie Asp has already taken the stand in this case and denied she had any problem with Seybold.

LaRue denies ever having had a conversation with Jessie Asp about beating Seybold, despite what he told the officers.

"No, Jessie never asked me or talked to me,” he testified.

He told the jury he knew there as a "Gordon” who was best friends with a man who used to date Asp's mother, but never met him.

"I have never been introduced to Gordon Seybold and didn't know his name until these proceedings,” LaRue said.

Before calling his client to the stand, Dieno reminded the jury that LaRue does not have to prove anything.

The lawyer also pointed out that while speaking with undercover officers, LaRue was not under oath.

Now, after swearing on the Bible, LaRue will be telling the truth, the lawyer said.

The accused continued his testimony today.