The murder trial of the man accused of being behind the "Washington sniper" has gone to the jury for deliberation.
Prosecutors portrayed Mr John Muhammad as a controlling man who turned his teenage companion, Mr Lee Malvo, into "an instrument of death and destruction."They said the 42-year-old Gulf War veteran trained Mr Malvo (18) as a sniper and planned a series of shootings, including 10 killings, that terrorised the Washington area in October 2002.
The 12 jurors got the case minutes before court adjourned for the day, and were to continue deliberations today.
In opening statements in Mr Malvo's trial in nearby Chesapeake, Virginia, prosecutors told jurors the teenager was a "smart, clever killer".
But defence attorneys described him as a shy, skinny kid looking for a father figure who was in thrall to Mr Muhammad and obedient to him.
"He changed him, he indoctrinated him," defence attorney Mr Craig Cooley said of Mr Muhammad's control over Mr Malvo. "He made him a child soldier."
The two men face two capital murder counts in two separate sniper killings. Both also face one weapons charge and Mr Muhammad faces an additional charge of conspiracy. One of the two capital murder counts in both trials invokes Virginia's new anti-terrorism law, enacted after the September 11th attacks.
If convicted of capital murder, both could face the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Mr Malvo is being tried as an adult and his defence team plans to argue that he was so indoctrinated by Mr Muhammad as to be legally insane.