Four inmates who had conversations with Thomas J. Fox in the Ramsey County jail after his Oakdale girlfriend was knifed to death testified Wednesday that he discussed her murder.

The inmates, three of whom remain in custody on various offenses, entered a Washington County courtroom one after the other to describe encounters with Fox just days after Lori Baker was found slain in her apartment in December 2011. They said they knew him by his nickname, "Bout It Bout it," an apparent reference to a rap song.

Fox is charged with first-degree premeditated murder and one count of first-degree armed robbery in the death of Baker, 39, a longtime nanny for two children. She was found dead on her bedroom floor, stabbed 48 times. The next day, Minneapolis police caught Fox having sex with a prostitute in Baker's car.

Fox, now 46, had dated Baker briefly until she discovered his background. He had served time in prison on robbery, theft and drug charges and is being held in Stillwater prison on an unrelated charge until August. He met Baker after he fled a halfway house in St. Paul.

Defense attorney Rebecca Waxse said during her opening statement last week that Fox didn't commit the killing. He was a crack addict who left the apartment to seek a drug fix, she said, and when he returned "in his drunken high state" he found Baker slain.

Under questioning Wednesday from County Attorney Pete Orput, the men described in jailhouse language how Fox informed them he was in trouble.

"I believe his exact words were, 'Damn, I can't believe I gutted my platinum piece,' " said Jamal Britt. "In prison guys have a lot of nicknames for women who take care of them. I took that to mean he gutted his woman."

Gutted would mean killed, some of the men testified.

"Bread and butter, platinum piece, his moneymaker, basically," is how Anwar Manning, who is no longer in custody, described Fox's references to a woman he didn't name.

Each of the men testified that Fox had asked for a "three-way" phone conversation — which would involve somebody outside the jail with a calling card — because he was in trouble and wanted help. He also tore a story about the killing out of a newspaper that was being passed around the jail, some of them said, and asked how much prison time he would get for a murder in Washington County.

Waxse and another defense attorney, Virginia Murphrey, got at least one inmate, Dayton Ledlow to admit that Fox never said he killed Baker. They also pressed the men about their extensive criminal records, including one convicted of lying to police.

Three of the men, Manning, Ledlow and Phillip Andrew Thomas, said they voluntarily notified police after talking with Fox. All four men, under questioning from Orput, said they were given nothing in exchange for testifying and did so of their own free will.

"I feel I was obligated to say something," said Britt, who's in treatment for a drug addiction. "What if something like that happened to my sister or my mother? I don't want to live by the street codes anymore."

The trial in Stillwater will continue at least through Friday. Defense attorneys haven't yet called any witnesses.

Kevin Giles • 651-925-5037