(NECN/NBC News: Brian Mooar) – Testimony ended Wednesday in the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse trial and the jury could begin its deliberations Thursday afternoon.
On the seventh and final day of testimony the defense presented more character witnesses speaking up for the former Penn State football coach.
But Sandusky himself didn't testify.
The defense decided to let Sandusky's supporters do the talking for him. Jerry Sandusky's defense rested today without the former Penn State football coach taking the witness stand. Though Sandusky didn't testify, the interviews and letters presented during the trial made him a potent witness for the prosecution.
Still his attorney looked upbeat as he left the courthouse.
"We're always hopeful."
The defense struggled to blunt a prosecution case built around eight young accusers and former grad student Mike McQueary, who testified he saw Sandusky abusing a boy in a Penn State shower.
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The defense tried to cast doubt on whether McQueary actually saw or just thought he saw a crime.
Friend Jonathan Dranov testified that McQueary told him he "heard what he described as sexual sounds."
"Those two words, ‘sexual sounds,’ is what the jury will take back with them," said Wes Oliver, NBC news legal analyst. “That's what they will remember.”
Dranov at the end of the day was ultimately a great witness for the prosecution. The defense also suggested Sandusky’s eight accusers made up stories, or were urged to do so.
Defense witness, David Hilton, a friend of Sandusky’s, told the court he was intimidated by police investigators.
"I felt like they wanted me to say something that wasn't true," he said.
Hilton and another defense witness, Chad Rexrode both described meeting Sandusky as youngsters and being invited to the Sandusky home for numerous sleepovers. Both remembered Sandusky as a father figure.
Jurors have been told to report at nine a.m. and expect to be sequestered until they have a verdict.
