NASHUA, N.H. – A man who admits killing a mother and maiming her daughter in a machete and knife attack said in a taped interview with police that was played Wednesday that he thought the slashing was “cool” and would have killed the girl if he had realized she was still alive.

In a recorded 7-hour statement to police played for jurors Tuesday and Wednesday, Christopher Gribble said he hacked to death Kimberly Cates and thought he had killed her 11-year-old daughter, Jaimie.

“I’m kind of surprised she’s alive,” Gribble told police the day after the Oct. 4, 2009, home invasion in Mont Vernon. “I kind of wish she’d died for her sake, just because she’s going to have to live with all that now.”

Jaimie suffered 18 wounds and lost a portion of a foot in the attack.

Prosecutors are expected to wrap up the state’s case today.

The 21-year-old Gribble denied any involvement in the home invasion during the first three hours of the police interview. But state troopers kept confronting him with additional information they had learned from others involved in the attack.

When Gribble finally began detailing the crimes, he spoke rapidly, but his voice was calm.

“I thought I would feel bad,” Gribble said. “I’m almost sorry to say I don’t. I thought I would at least puke afterward or something.”

“I just felt nothing,” he said.

Gribble is trying to convincing the jury he was insane at the time of the crimes. A forensic psychiatrist for the prosecution who examined Gribble in February said he is a liar and a manipulator who is not insane.