SKOWHEGAN — An audio recording played in Robert Nelson’s murder trial Thursday revealed that drugs and alcohol were part of a normal day for him, including the one when Everett Cameron was killed.

Nelson, in a recorded interview with police days after the murder, said the day that Cameron was killed was for the most part a normal day for him.

He said that he split wood in the morning, then went home and got ready for his daughter’s birthday party that afternoon. He said that he met with Cameron about some money he owed him for an Oxycodone pill.

Nelson also admitted to having used drugs and alcohol that day and said that he had a substance abuse problem.

“I’ve always used alcohol as a therapy for stuff going on in my life and my relationship problems. I’ve used drugs like that, too. Unfortunately I’ve always been like that,” he said in the recording played in Somerset County Superior Court.

He also told Maine State Police Detectives Jason Andrews and Jeffrey Love in the Nov. 4, 2009, interview that “I want to help out as much as I can.”

Nelson, 41, has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of Cameron, who was found in his pickup truck with a gunshot wound to the head on Oct. 31, 2009, on Town Farm Road in Anson.

Today is the fourth day of the trial.

Contact Rachel Ohm at  612-2368 or at rohm@mainetoday.com