REPLAY: Live coverage as Mark Becker murder case goes to jury

UPDATE: Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown said today it was Mark Becker's choice to shoot Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas June 24, and that his choice was calculated and planned.

Becker had specific intent that day to shoot and kill Thomas, Brown said in his closing argument in Becker's first-degree murder trial in Butler County District Court.

This entire case is about Mark Becker's state of mind, Brown said. "You have to look at what he did," he said.

Becker's public defender, Susan Flander, said in her closing the issue at stake is whether Becker was insane the day he killed Thomas. Dr. Phillip Resnick, a psychiatrist who was an expert witness, went over Becker's mental evaluation, testifying Becker is paranoid schizophrenic, didn't have the capacity to understand the nature and quality of his acts and couldn't distinguish right from wrong.

He was delusional, Flander said. He thought Thomas was trying to rape him.

Flander said Becker wasn't rational. He thought Thomas was Satan. He thought he had killed someone evil. There is no rational motive in this case, she said.

Becker is accused of shooting and killing Thomas in the temporary high school weight room last summer. He is claiming insanity as his defense. Testimony in the two-week trial wrapped up Tuesday.

The jury began deliberating the case around 12:30 p.m. The judge will let them deliberate until 5 or 5:30 p.m.

Brown and Flander went over the details leading up to the shooting and afterwards. Brown pointed out things like Becker's planning for the shooting and his hiding of the plan as him being able to reason and that he knew right from wrong.

Flander focused on the bizarre behavior of Becker, such as him bathing in toilet water and touching himself at the jail, as well as hearing voices and believing it was the devil tyrant, that was driving him to do this. She said he was clearly insane when he shot and killed Thomas.

Check out reporter Trish Mehaffey's liveblog to recap this morning's closing arguments. We'll report on a verdict as soon as it's available.