‘I kind of lost it’

The alleged Kensington strangler will face the death penalty for three strangulation homicides about which a packed courtroom heard graphic details yesterday that he shared with detectives after his Jan. 16 arrest.

Sporting an orange prison jumpsuit, Antonio Rodriguez stared at the defense table as two homicide detectives read his statements about the deaths of Elaine Goldberg, Nicole Piacentini and Casey Mahoney late last year.

“He did it, that’s what he said,” recounted Detective James Pitts. When asked why he didn’t turn himself in, Rodriguez said because “I knew I strangled those women.”

Rodriguez, 22, told police he picked the women up on Kensington streets for sex and that he and Goldberg discussed choking. “She told me to use both hands, tighter and tighter, but she just stopped,” he stated. “I didn’t want to stick around to find out [if she was dead].”

Piacentini tried to fight him off but when she stopped flailing, Rodriguez noticed blood on his hands, he said.

“She was trying to say something but she couldn’t get it out. … I wasn’t done with her though,” he added, admitting he put her on the ground and continued having sex. “I’m pretty certain she was dead those additional times.”

ADA: It’s a capital case

Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega didn’t buy Rodriguez’s “they wanted to be choked” claims. “They fought to no avail because he’d gotten them from behind,” Vega said after the hearing. “This is absolutely a capital case.”