JOLIET – The attorney representing himself against charges he tried to hire someone to kill his former wife testified in his own defense Thursday.

Robert W. Gold-Smith, 53, has filed a motion to dismiss his indictment for solicitation of murder, which he argues was obtained through another Will County jail inmate's perjury to the grand jury.

In November 2010, Gold-Smith's then-wife sought an order of protection after he grabbed her by the hair and punched her in the face as they walked out of a courtroom, police said. The lawyer has been in jail since March 2011 after allegedly violating that order of protection and approaching inmates to have her killed.

On Oct. 3, 2012, Brian K. McDaniel was wearing a wire when he approached Gold-Smith and made a recording played Thursday for Judge Daniel Rozak.

After acknowledging to detectives he gave consent to be recorded, McDaniel went to the jail's common area where Gold-Smith was sitting to say he'd gotten a deal and was being released, according to the recording.

Gold-Smith acknowledged to Rozak his voice is heard discussing the jail rule book, but said he is not the man who whispers "kill the [expletive]" at least twice.

"I know damn well I didn't say one word to this man ... [another inmate] and I thought he was acting very odd in the weeks before this. I know [McDaniel]'s a snitch," Gold-Smith said.

Gold-Smith told Rozak when he was charged with solicitation of murder he "wracked [his] brain for days ... Could I have somewhere along the line slipped up? No way."

Gold-Smith said at the next hearing the third inmate will testify he was sitting next to Gold-Smith throughout the interactions with McDaniel that evening and McDaniel kept getting up to walk around. Those gaps are when McDaniel whispered the kill threats, Gold-Smith said.

McDaniel is now serving time for 2013 theft and shoplifting convictions in the Illinois River Correctional Center.

An attorney representing Gold-Smith in a civil lawsuit against jail staff testified Thursday he does not believe his client is the man whose voice whispers the threats on the recording. Will County Assistant State's Attorney Adam Capelli stipulated that four of Gold-Smith's relatives who have also heard the recording do not believe he made the whispered threat.