After listening to closing arguments Thursday, a Massachusetts jury began deliberating the fate of Thomas Junta, the hockey dad accused of beating another father at a youth scrimmage and ultimately causing his death.

The panel of nine women and three men spent more than four hours weighing evidence before leaving for the night. During the afternoon, the forewoman sent two notes to Judge Charles Grabau. The first asked for transcripts of the judge's legal instructions, and the second requested that copies of one juror's notes be made. The judge denied both requests.

Deliberations are to resume Friday morning. If the jury rejects Junta's self-defense claim and convicts him of manslaughter, the 44-year-old faces 20 years in prison.

Four days of testimony in the case, considered the worst example of the national problem of "sideline rage" in youth sports, culminated Wednesday in Junta's own turn on the witness stand. He said he became angry after the victim, Michael Costin, refused to stop on-ice roughness at a July 5, 2000, pick-up game in Reading.

He said Costin dismissed his concerns about body-checking and thrown elbows, saying, "That's hockey." After an initial shoving match in a locker room alcove, Junta said, Costin ambushed him in the rink lobby and in self-defense Junta threw "three off-balance punches."

Orlandi

"Any reasonable person would have a right to fight off this attack," defense lawyer Thomas Orlandi told jurors during his closing. The attorney took pains to paint Junta, a 6-foot, 275-pound truck driver, as a "gentle giant" dedicated to his wife and two sports-loving children and told jurors, "Send Thomas Junta back to his hockey family."

But prosecutor Sheila Calkins urged jurors to convict, saying Junta inflicted a brutal and prolonged beating on Costin, a 156-pound father of four informally refereeing the game, and then lied about how the fight unfolded to conceal his own aggression.

She highlighted what she said were inconsistencies in the statement he gave police immediately after the fight and his testimony before the jury. On the stand, he said Costin kicked him with his ice skates during an initial scuffle and, during the fatal altercation, kept a tight grip on Junta's wrist, preventing him from fleeing.

Calkins

"Where is it?" she said holding a transcript of his half-hour police interview. "The first time we hear of it is there," she said, pointing to the stand, "for your benefit."

She ridiculed the description of Junta as a "gentle giant."

"He took [Costin's] head and he slammed it into the mat. Gentle giant?" said Calkins. "Does that sound like self-defense to you?"

She pointed to medical testimony indicating 15 separate areas of trauma on Costin's body and testimony from the medical examiner that the victim died when his head and neck were wrenched back, severing an artery to his brain.

She said Junta's anger in reaction to the rough play on the ice was understandable, but his response was not.

"Absolutely, he should have been upset, and he could have done something in a responsible manner," she said.

Orlandi, however, said Junta had no time to do anything but protect himself. He emphasized the testimony of Ryan Carr, a college hockey player who ultimately pulled Junta from Costin. Carr testified that the victim drew his fist back as if to take a punch at Junta as he walked through the rink doors.

"This little 160-pound guy was set to take him out," said Orlandi. "Three to four punches under five seconds. Mr. Junta did not have an opportunity to retreat."

Orlandi argued that the only testimony of a prolonged pummeling by Junta came from two female bystanders, a rink employee who said Junta threw at least 10 punches and a grandmother watching her grandson's practice who said the fight seemed to go on forever. Both women, the defense lawyer suggested, were too emotional to be accurate.

But Calkins derided that argument, saying the assault lasted long enough for "these two hysterical women who — oh my God — have never seen a fight before" to repeatedly plead with Junta to stop and even shout out, "You're going to kill him."

"There was plenty of time for them to see that Michael Costin was in trouble," she said.