Some killers claim remorse. Others deny, deny, deny.

It's the rare triggerman who stands by shooting a family member in cold blood, but that is what 21-year-old William Fuller did Tuesday as he testified in his father's capital murder trial.

"I still hate her," Fuller said on the witness stand, testifying about Pauletta Burleson, the stepmother who had raised him since he was 11.

He testified that his father, Houston pastor Tracy Burleson, nagged, abused and ultimately bribed him with $2,000 of life insurance money to shoot his wife, Pauletta Burleson, in the back of the head on May 18, 2010.

Burleson is charged with capital murder. Fuller's charges have been reduced to murder in exchange for his cooperation. His trial is pending.

Fuller testified his father and stepmother physically and verbally abused him and each other after he came to live with them 10 years ago.

He said he broke up knife fights between the pastor and his wife and once was stabbed in the arm for his trouble.

Fuller said his father confided in him that he had multiple affairs until finally proposing to one of Fuller's friends, Tyonne Palmer, in 2009. She agreed to marry the married pastor.

Fuller had moved in with Palmer and said he was close to her three children and loved her platonically.

When his father began dating Palmer, Fuller said, he was not jealous, despite having her name tattooed on his neck.

The pastor's son said he had sex with Palmer two days after the shooting, but was not in love with her.

In the weeks between the shooting and their eventual arrest, Palmer was dating father and son, investigators said.

It was 2008, after Fuller graduated from high school that his father had begun suggesting murder, which he refused.

"I just wasn't a killer, back then," Fuller said Tuesday.

He said the pastor pestered him for months and hit him for not agreeing to the plan.

"I was being physically abused," Fuller said Tuesday. "I decided to stop the physical abuse."

He also felt he was being cheated, he said.

Parents took his money

After enrolling at Texas Southern University as a nursing student, he received a $5,000 a semester stipend. His parents took the money.

They also "stole" disability payments Fuller received after being diagnosed with sickle cell anemia. He said his father told him the checks were being garnished for his birth mother's misdeeds.

Asked if he ever saw the feuding couple "happy," Fuller replied bitterly, "When they were spending my money. All they cared about was money."

In December 2009, the pastor and his mistress asked Fuller to kill Pauletta Burleson so they could marry.

'Set fire to the church'

In an orange prison uniform Tuesday, Fuller told jurors he had many reasons to hate his stepmother. She teased him about having sickle cell anemia, he said. When she was killed, she was on felony probation for abusing him. And, he said, she once made him lie on handfuls of dried rice in the driveway, "from morning until it was night."

"And that was painful," defense attorney Laine Lindsey asked.

"Yes," Fuller said.

Fuller testified at length about his family and the shooting, but it was an offhanded remark that drew objections and saw state District Judge Susan Brown send the jury out of the courtroom.

"He and Pauletta had set fire to the church," Fuller said before being interrupted by Lindsey.

Burleson was pastor of the First New Mount Calvary Baptist Church in the Fifth Ward, which was destroyed by fire a week before the shooting. No charges have been filed in the fire.

'One more thing … '

In interviews with police, Burleson has denied any wrongdoing involving the fire and his wife's shooting.

Damon Crawford, a church deacon, testified Tuesday he surveyed the damage with Burleson, who said, "Now that the church is burned down, I've got one more thing to get rid of."

Burleson is accused of masterminding the plot that ended with his distracting his wife in a screaming match as Fuller sneaked up and shot her in the back of the head.

Burleson called police about three minutes later. A Harris County sheriff's deputy arrived within minutes to find Burleson, who said he just arrived to find his wife dead.

He said he had gone to the store to buy snacks, but did not have any snacks with him. He later said he lied about going to the store, because he was worried police would pin the slaying on him.

"I did not kill my wife," Burleson repeated dozens of times throughout more than three hours of a recorded statement the jury heard Tuesday.

brian.rogers@chron.com