A jury of six Seminole County residents began deliberating in the Allied Veterans Internet cafe case that shut down dozens of Central Florida businesses.
Jurors received their instructions from the judge Thursday morning, and began deliberating in the afternoon.
Deliberations ended for the day around 5 p.m., and were expected to resume at 8:30 a.m. Friday.
They were charged with deciding whether the Internet cafes were a legitimate business or centers for illegal gambling.
Jurors will also have to figure out what role attorney Kelly Mathis played in all of this. Prosecutors called Mathis the mastermind behind Allied Veterans of the World's network of Internet cafes, saying the Internet time sold to customers, which was supposed to benefit veterans, was just a front for illegal gambling.
Before they began deliberating, prosecutors had one last chance to remind them why they say Mathis is responsible for an entire network of illegal gambling.
“It's about gambling. But why are we here for Kelly Mathis? Because of the way he gamed the law. The way he chose to practice the law. To mislead. To deceive," said State Attorney Nick Cox.
The state did not hold back in that final closing argument. Prosecutor Nick Cox called the defense's case "a bunch of head fakes," and asked jurors to use their common sense and follow the law strictly.
“If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck,” said Cox.
The prosecutor delivered a very heated final speech that was interrupted several times by objections from Mathis' defense attorney Mitch Stone. The judge struck down all of the objections.
In closing arguments Wednesday, defense attorneys argued the sweepstakes games were legal, and Mathis was only a legal advisor to Allied.
During the trial that stretched on for weeks, defense attorneys tried to convince jurors the Internet cafes were operating under the law, and that Mathis was only giving Allied Veterans of the World legal advice.
But prosecutors say the fact that he was a lawyer, makes him even more guilty.
“That's the problem. He was a lawyer. If anybody knew better about what the law said, it was him,” said Cox.
Several of the nearly 60 people initially charged in this case still face separate trials starting in 2014. State attorneys said no matter what the jury decides in this trial, it will not affect the charges against those other defendants.