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Leon Jacob takes stand in murder-for-hire trial

"I never asked to have anybody hurt, killed harmed, or kidnapped," Leon Jacob said.

In the fourth day of trial, Leon Jacob took the stand in his own defense.

Jacob is charged with two counts of solicitation of capital murder.

“I never asked anyone to kill anybody,” the defendant testified Thursday.

Related: Dramatic testimony from alleged target in doctor's murder-for-hire case

Jacob was arrested with his girlfriend, veterinarian Valerie McDaniel, in March of 2017.

Jacob had been previously charged with assaulting and stalking his ex-girlfriend, Meghan Verikas. Investigators claim he wanted to “take care of her” so she couldn’t testify against him.

Prosecutors allege McDaniel wanted her ex-husband, Mack McDaniel, killed because of an ugly divorce and custody battle.

Valerie McDaniel committed suicide after the arrests.

In court, prosecutors revealed that the man the couple hired was an undercover police officer who recorded 14 phone and in-person conversations.

In the recordings, the undercover discusses three options with Jacob: get his ex-girlfriend to leave town, have her charged with a crime, or kill her.

However, Jacob offered another explanation for the events presented in court. He says he believed he was hiring a private investigator to find his ex-girlfriend and pay her to leave town.

“I never asked to have anybody hurt, killed harmed, or kidnapped,” Jacob said.

The defendant testified that, in the police audio recordings, he said he didn’t want any harm to come to his ex-girlfriend more than 170 times.

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