RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A handyman who admitted he felt like he hit a "Lotto" jackpot when he began an affair with the wife of a super-wealthy financier four years ago strongly denied Wednesday that he killed the man in a plot to marry the woman and get control of her inheritance.

Daniel Pelosi married Generosa Ammon just three months after someone murdered her estranged husband, Robert "Ted" Ammon, but Pelosi testified that he was nowhere near the Hamptons beach house on the night in October 2001, when someone viciously attacked Ammon with a blunt object as he slept.

Getting Pelosi to admit he believed Ammon was worth 10 times the $25 million Generosa Ammon was offered in a divorce settlement, prosecutor Janet Albertson built an argument that Pelosi wanted to get at Ammon's fortune through his wife.

Generosa Ammon later spent $400,000 for forensic accountants to calculate Ted Ammon's estate at about $60 million, according to testimony.

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Wearing a black suit, white shirt and blue tie, Pelosi's hair gel appeared to break down during a pointed cross-examination aimed at his financial difficulties around the time of the murder. He lost more than $1.2 million gambling and was living large six months after marrying Generosa Ammon.

Pelosi remained composed as he denied Albertson's allegations that he finally had enough of the bickering, lawyers and Generosa Ammon's deep depression about her husband, with whom she raised two adopted twins.

Albertson found fodder in Pelosi's surprise admission that he told the children's nanny on the day of the killing that "Ted has to be a man ... Someone has to knock some sense into him."

Pelosi, an unlicensed electrician who met Generosa Ammon while working on a $10 million renovation of her Manhattan apartment, told jurors he sometimes talks the way "guys from Brooklyn" talk. He said he had no anger toward Ammon, but was simply frustrated by the prolonged divorce.

"You simply went out to East Hampton to knock some sense in his head, and you lost it," Albertson said.

"That's absolutely not true," Pelosi said.

Murder theories

Ammon was killed on Oct. 21, 2001, several hours after dining alone at an East End restaurant and then visiting a gay beach. He left a voice mail for a girlfriend that he was going home because some of the men on the beach made him nervous, but the defense contends that Ammon was living a secret gay lifestyle and may have been killed by a male lover after a one-night stand.

Police, however, focused their investigation on Pelosi because of his relationship with Ammon's wife and statements he allegedly made to several people who testified at the trial.

One witness said Pelosi told him a year before the killing that he was going to "bash" Ammon's brains in and marry the widow for the money. The defense claims the man hates Pelosi because Pelosi had an affair with the man's wife.

A former girlfriend testified that Pelosi told her after he married Generosa that Ammon begged for his life and "cried like a bitch." She also claims Pelosi explained that "I have a monster inside of me" and beat his chest when she asked him why he killed Ammon.

Pelosi told jurors he may have beat his chest "like Tarzan" when they had sex, but denied the rest of the woman's story.

Throughout her wide-ranging cross-examination, Albertson kept focused on fact that Generosa Ammon was enraged about the divorce and was making life unbearable for everyone involved.

"As long as Ted was alive, you wouldn't have any peace with Generosa. You couldn't take it any longer," Albertson said.

"Mrs. Albertson, you phrase this with such drama," Pelosi said. "It wasn't that way."

For the first time, Pelosi claimed Generosa Ammon did ask him two months before the murder whether he could kill Ted Ammon or find someone to do it.

Pelosi volunteered the testimony, because no such question was posed, causing spectators in the packed, overheated courtroom to whisper speculation that the defense may argue that Generosa Ammon may have hired someone to kill Ted Ammon.

Noting that Generosa Ammon died of cancer in 2003, Albertson suggested Pelosi was taking advantage of her absence to sell jurors a story that could not be disproved.

Civil suit

A lot of testimony Wednesday concerned three wills Generosa Ammon filed between her May 2002 cancer diagnosis and her death the following year.

In the first will she left the bulk of her estate to Pelosi, her husband then, and $1 million and a home to a nanny to care for her children. She later changed the will and cut Pelosi out after he signed a post-nuptial agreement and accepted $2 million that went into a fund to pay for the lawyers representing him during the intense police investigation of the murder.

Pelosi is trying to nullify the post-nuptial in a surrogate court, arguing that he did not realize what he was signing and that it was under duress because he needed to fund his anticipated criminal defense before all of his wife's assets were frozen by prosecutors.

He is also trying nullify Generosa's second will, which gives most of her estate to the children. Albertson used the lawsuit to frame an argument that even now Pelosi hopes to beat the murder charge and then go after the millions Ammon's widow received after the murder.

"It belongs to the children," Pelosi said. "I never, in my life, wanted the dead man's money."

"The children, in the will, already have it," Albertson argued. She added later, "You still want money, don't you?"

The issue of the civil case marked the only time Pelosi indicated from the stand that maybe he should consult his defense lawyers. Albertson tried to get Pelosi to admit he signed the post-nuptial document, but Pelosi was concerned about testifying that he agreed to anything.

As far as having access to money, Pelosi said Generosa Ammon never denied him cash, even after he'd lost $25,000 on a single hand of blackjack.

"I enjoyed gambling. I was not a very good gambler, but I enjoyed it," said Pelosi, who took 11 friends to Las Vegas at his own expense. "I had all the money I wanted. All I had to do was ask Generosa."

Lack of evidence

The case against Pelosi is almost entirely circumstantial.

Witnesses and cellphone records place him about a 45-minute drive away from the crime scene about the time defense pathologists believe Ammon died. Prosecutors, however, claim Pelosi had ample time to drive out to East Hampton from his sister's home, kill Ammon, and then drive back before dawn.

Albertson also asked Pelosi about an electric "stun gun" he purchased months before the murder. She contends that burn-like marks on Ammon's back are consistent with the use of a stun gun.

Pelosi said he bought the stun gun during a trip to a New York "spy shop" to buy a powerful microcassette recorder Generosa Ammon wanted to help build evidence for use in the divorce case.

"It was a neat little thing," Pelosi said of the stun gun. He acknowledged that he enjoyed paying workers $100 apiece to let him test the weapon on them.

"It was all in fun," he said. "I didn't do that to Mr. Ammon."

"You didn't enjoy beating him?" Albertson asked.

Pelosi again denied involvement.

On redirect examination, defense attorney Gerald Shargel had Pelosi go through what he did step by step on the day before the killing and the early morning period of the following day when Ammon was murdered.

"Mr. Pelosi, sit back, relax," Shargel told his client. "Do you need water?"

"I need a drink," replied the defendant, an alcoholic who has not had a drink since he was charged and jailed without bail in March.

"Did you murder Ted Ammon?" Shargel said, repeating one of the only six questions he asked on direct examination Tuesday.

"Absolutely not," Pelosi said. "I had nothing to do with Ted Ammon's murder. I've been waiting three years to tell a jury of my peers this."

Later, Shargel asked questions designed to establish that, while Pelosi was a self-styled "storyteller," gambler, drinker and womanizer, his client's vices stop short of homicide.

"You've told many boastful stories in your life, haven't you?" the defense lawyer asked.

"Yes, I have," Pelosi said.

"You are a bullshitter, right?" Shargel said.

"Absolutely," Pelosi said.

When Shargel sat down, Albertson jumped to her feet to ask one last question.

"Are you bullshitting the jury now, Mr. Pelosi?" she asked.

"No, I'm not," he said.

Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday. Judge Robert Doyle told jurors to pack a bag. They're going to be sequestered and will be deliberating over the weekend.