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Suspect Lannon
Photo: AP
Sean Lannon from the US state of New Mexico is currently on trial.
He is charged with the death of a man in East Greenwich, New Jersey.
At the hearing on the case on Friday, the 47-year-old admitted the murder.
He killed the 66-year-old Michael Dabkowski from New Jersey on March 8th in his apartment with a hammer.
But apparently Lannon has committed several other crimes: He is said to have killed another 15 people in the US state of New Mexico, he is said to have confessed in his first police interrogation.
His ex-wife is also among his victims.
Lannon had been arrested in Missouri after a lengthy escape.
According to the US broadcaster CNN, he attended the hearing via video switch.
"He confessed to having dismembered some bodies," said prosecutor Alec Gutierrez in court, according to CNN.
Lannon wanted to remove evidence.
"He admitted to having killed a total of 16 people." The public prosecutor's office now wants to clarify whether the accused's statements could be true.
Lawyer assumes possible self-defense in one case
The police in Albuquerque, the largest city in the US state of New Mexico, had previously linked Lannon to four dismembered bodies that were found on March 5 on the premises of a local airport.
Among those dead was his 39-year-old ex-wife Jennifer Lannon.
A police spokesman told CNN on Friday that Albuquerque authorities are pursuing multiple investigations.
There will be further interrogations and searches, especially in the case of the 60-year-old Randal Apostalon, who was killed in Albuquerque.
The police in Lannon's hometown of Grants, New Mexico, are investigating three more murders.
Lannon's defense attorney did not deny his client's information, but wanted to take the confession out of the current hearing on the Dabkowski case.
In this case, it could have been self-defense, said the lawyer.
Lannon had told the police that he had been abused by Dabkowski for years.
The murder weapon, the hammer, belonged to the victim who allegedly attacked first.
The judge ordered pre-trial detention due to an acute risk of escape.
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