After an hour of closing arguments, twelve Wood County jurors slowly filed out of the district court room in Quitman to begin considering whether or not Jason Tad Payne is guilty of murdering his wife and step-son.

The presentations by the prosecution and the defense wraps several days of testimony and hundred of items of evidence in the trial.

During his closing statements, District Attorney Jim Wheeler made the same arguement he made more than a week ago, saying Payne shot and killed his wife and step-son and staged a scene to make it appear his step-son killed himself.

After listing several of what he called "mistakes" made by Payne in staging the scene, Wheeler said, "I could go on, because there is so much more." He later added, "This is a strong evidentiary case."

The defense attorney in the case told the jury that the state had the burden of proof but had failed to offer any evidence that Payne committed the murders. "It's their job to prove their case and prove it with evidence."

Parks capitalized on a comment made by Wheeler yesterday during the cross examination of Noel Martin. Martin, a Smith County Criminalist who processed evidence from the scene on the day the shootings occured, testified for the defense, saying he beleived the boy's shooting was a suicide.

Refering to the opinion offered by prosecution experts, Wheeler had questioned Martin, asking "reasonable minds can disagree?"

"Reasonable minds can disagree," Parks told the jury today. "That is reasonable doubt." Parks went on to call the prosecution's case, "smoke and mirrors."

Wheeler displayed his anger to the jury when discussing lead investigator Miles Tucker. Pointing sharply at the defense table, Wheeler said Tucker had worked to solve the case while, "they have called him a liar!"

The jury began their deliberations around 10:30. Nearly an hour later, they sent a note to the judge asking for a yard stick and a measuring rods used by the prosecution. Wheeler had used the items to illustrate hour far the rifle may have been from the step-son's face when he was shot.

None of the items were entered as evidence and therefore could not be sent to the jury. Judge Boswell asked them to continue their deliberations.