Fellow inmate testifies that Drew Peterson confessed to killing his wife

A prison inmate Drew Peterson is accused of enlisting to arrange the killing of a state's attorney says the imprisoned former suburban Chicago police officer also admitted to killing his missing fourth wife.

Antonio Smith testified Monday that the ex-Bolingbrook sergeant convicted in 2012 of killing his third wife referred to Stacy Peterson as a 'dead woman' and said he killed her, the Chicago Tribune reported. Peterson also asked for help hiring a hit man to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, who put Peterson behind bars, Smith testified.

Peterson, 62, has never been charged in Stacy Peterson's disappearance and has maintained his innocence.

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Opening statements began Monday in Chester, Illinois, in the murder-for-hire trial of Drew Peterson, the former suburban Chicago police officer accused of plotting to kill the state's attorney who prosecuted Peterson in his third wife's death. Peterson pictured on the left arriving in Joliet, Illinois court in May 2009. On the right is Antonio Smith, the former inmate who testified against Peterson on Monday

He's serving a 38-year sentence in the 2004 death of his ex-wife Kathleen Savio in a case that was reopened after Stacy Peterson went missing in 2007.

Randolph County State's Attorney Jeremy Walker told jurors on the first day of Peterson's murder-for-hire trial that the defendant was motivated by 'anger, hatred (and) revenge' against Glasgow, as well as the belief that the prosecutor's death would lead to a successful appeal of his first-degree murder conviction, which is under review by the Illinois Supreme Court.

Smith - whose prison nickname is 'Beast' - testified that Peterson said he was owed $10,000 that would be his payment to 'the person that was supposed to do the killing,' according to the Tribune.

Smith reported the offer to authorities and agreed to help secretly record Peterson, according to prosecutors. Those wiretapped conversations are expected to be played in court during the weeklong trial.

Stacy Peterson (pictured) was just 19 and 26 years younger than her husband when they married. She mysteriously vanished in 2007. Her body has never been found

Peterson is charged with solicitation of murder for hire and solicitation for murder after allegedly trying to hire someone to kill Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow, above in 2013, while Peterson was in prison

A transport van carrying Drew Peterson arrives to the Randolph County Courthouse in Chester, Illinois under guard by officers from the Illinois Department of Corrections on Monday May 23, 2016

Peterson, who is imprisoned at the Menard Correctional Center in southern Illinois, has pleaded not guilty to charges of solicitation of murder for hire and solicitation of murder related to Glasgow. He faces an additional 60 years in prison if convicted of those charges.

Peterson is currently in jail on a 38-year prison sentence for the murder of his third wife Kathleen Savio (pictured). If he is convicted on the murder-for-hire charges, he will get another 60 years added onto his sentence 

'They're going to sensationalize the heck out of this thing,' defense attorney Lucas Liefer told the jurors during his opening statement. 'Do not give in to this approach.'

Peterson's animus toward Glasgow - whom Walker said Peterson wanted killed on the elected prosecutor's way to or from his Joliet office - extended beyond Glasgow's role in helping put him behind bars, according to testimony and evidence presented.

On the recordings, Peterson blames Glasgow for efforts to revoke Peterson's $79,000 annual police pension, prosecutors say. He also says Glasgow is the reason that Peterson's son, Stephen, lost his job at the Oak Brook Police Department over what authorities said were the younger Peterson's efforts to obstruct the investigation into Savio's death.

After Peterson's conviction, Glasgow called him a 'coward' and a 'thug' who would 'threaten people because he had a gun and a badge.'

Glasgow testified that he listened to about 15 minutes of the Peterson wiretap.

'The word "kill" wasn't used, but the implication of kill was there,' Glasgow testified. 'Based on 36 years of experience in law enforcement, from my listening of the tape, it was clear to me there was going to be my demise.'

Walker said Smith, the prison informant, didn't receive a reduced sentence for his cooperation but was paid $3,200 by the FBI to replace property lost after he was transferred to the federal prison system following his involvement with Peterson.