DURHAM, N.C. — The question of whether Michael Peterson beat his wife to death or simply found her dead from an accidental fall in their home now rests with a jury.

A panel of five men and seven women began considering murder charges against the writer Monday, following a topsy-turvy day in which two alternate jurors were added, one of whom was elected the foreperson.

The panel spent 45 minutes Monday afternoon deliberating and will resume Tuesday at 9:30 a.m., ET.

A 37-year-old manager at a clinical research institute and mother of two was elected to lead the jury after she replaced a juror dismissed because of an alleged incident involving alcohol last Tuesday evening. 

Peterson, 59, says he found his wife dead in a stairwell of their Durham, North Carolina, mansion on Dec. 9, 2001.  Prosecutors say he bludgeoned the victim to death, and spun a "fictional plot" involving the stairwell to avoid prosecution.  Peterson could spend life in prison if convicted.

Monday morning, lawyers for both sides attended a closed-door hearing with Judge Orlando Hudson, Jr. about a juror who allegedly made drunken threats to four service station employees and police last Tuesday.

After the 45-minute hearing, Hudson told jurors the record of the proceeding would be sealed, and dismissed the retired carpenter, Wilford Ellis Hamm, from the panel.

In an unexpected turn of events, a male nurse alternate juror was also added to the panel after another juror, Joanne Rebecca Hairston, was dismissed for allegedly mocking Peterson, a customer at a local bank where she works.

The defense was reportedly contacted by someone at the bank, and then alerted the court to the information about the juror.

Defense and prosecution lawyers now wait for the jury's decision

The jury panel now includes three nurses. Only one alternate juror remains. After sending the jury in to begin its deliberations, the judge released the lone alternate juror.

On Monday, Jurors also set a relaxed deliberation schedule that will have them deliberating from 9:30 until 3:00 p.m., with a one-hour break for lunch at 11:30.

"That's the monster you have created," the judge jokingly told lawyers. Peterson's murder trial has spanned more than three months thanks, in part, to Hudson's accommodating scheduling.

Court clerks brought evidence requested by jurors into the deliberation room Monday as well, including a "boom box" (which could be used to play a tape of Peterson's 911 call), blood-stained shoes, and the four blow pokes which have been at the center of this Durham county trial.

The Michael Peterson trial, which resumes tomorrow at 9:30am ET,  is being broadcast by Court TV.