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SAN JOSE — Yosemite killer Cary Stayner told a psychiatrist that voices on the television told him to kill. But all he told the FBI about TV was that it taught him how to cover up his crimes. 

Prosecutors began cross-examining a defense expert Wednesday in Stayner’s triple-murder trial, pointing out inconsistencies in what the former motel handyman told the people who tried to solve his killings and those who tried to explain them. 

Dr. Jose Arturo Silva testified in Santa Clara Superior Court that Stayner heard voices and received messages through television that led him to kill. 

“He said the end of the world was coming,” Silva said. “He was supposed to be part of the process involved in so-called Armageddon. He had a sense that part of his destiny was to be involved in homicidal activities.” 

By contrast, when Stayner gave his lengthy confession to FBI interrogators on July 24, 1999, he never mentioned hearing voices. He did mention Armageddon, but only at the prompting of investigators — who were referring to the movie. 

He did, however, mention television. He said that’s where he learned to clean up evidence of hairs he left behind and how he knew to get someone else to lick an envelope so he wouldn’t leave traces of his DNA on a note he sent to taunt the FBI. 

Stayner’s lawyers plan to mount an insanity defense in the killings of three Yosemite National Park tourists: Carole Sund, 42, her daughter, Juli, 15, and their friend Silvina Pelosso, 16, of Argentina. Stayner faces the death penalty if convicted. 

Silva has been the key defense witness, testifying that Stayner suffered from a severe mental disorder at the time of the killings in February 1999. 

Silva has presented a wide-ranging list of elements to illustrate and explain Stayner’s warped mental state: from a chronic hair pulling problem to obsessions with bigfoot and even television. 

Prosecutor George Williamson attempted to discredit the doctor’s testimony. 

Silva admitted there is some debate in the psychiatric community about the ability to diagnose someone’s current mental state and also disagreement about diagnosing their previous state of mind. 

Williamson also showed that Silva’s conclusions were at odds with another doctor who concluded Stayner was psychotic.