Bill Cosby Sexual Assault Case Goes to Jury

On Monday, the defense in the Bill Cosby sexual assault trial rested their case after calling just a single witness.

Monday's closing arguments finished out Day 6 of Cosby's criminal trial. Constand says Cosby drugged and molested her as she lay helpless on his couch at his nearby home. He says what they did was consensual.

"One of the greatest storytellers in the world and I'm failing", Cosby said when asked to repeat an answer in the deposition. In that case he gave damaging testimony, but it did not become public until 2015. By allowing Cosby's wife to enter the courtroom in the middle of proceedings while the judge was speaking, officials at the Montgomery Courthouse extended her an extraordinary and unprecedented courtesy.

The seven-men, five-woman panel began deliberations at around 5:30 pm local time (2130 GMT), each ordering dinner from a series of menus that included burgers and salads.

They'll resume deliberations Tuesday morning. It was read to them by the judge. "I have three friends for you to make you relax". But he also raised his voice at times during his more-than-two-hour statement. "It's criminal", District Attorney Kevin Steele said. He said the encounter occurred in 1990, while Johnson insists it was 1996, the year she left her job. Constand, wearing a casual lightweight blue blazer, was joined by her mother, Gianna Constand, who was a key prosecution witness.

The fast-paced and highly emotional trial began on Monday last week. Cosby says any contact was consensual.

A conviction could send Cosby to prison for the rest of his life.

Defense attorney Brian McMonagle in his closing statement said Cosby was guilty of adultery but not sexual assault. Even when Steele did get loud, it didn't carry the same dramatic effect, and having it come after the lunch break and a previous marathon closing argument didn't help.

Andrea Constand, the 44-year-old at the centre of the case, says the alleged incident happened during a visit to his home to seek career advice. Earlier in the evening, they requested to see the entire context of Cosby's testimony "where he calls the pills his friends".

And he uses jarring language to describe his sexual encounters with various young women. Judge Steven O'Neill asked the television star, once loved by millions as "America's Dad" for his role on hit sitcom "The Cosby Show". The comedian also has denied similar allegations from more than 60 women. He just testified for six minutes and the lawyers immediately started their closing arguments.

Cosby could charm jurors by testifying. Constand took a seat in the front row on the opposite side of the courtroom. Let's be real. Let's look each other in the eye and talk about why we're here.

Cosby's primary accuser, Andrea Constand, received an unknown amount of money from a civil case she filed. In total, it has been reported that the defense witness was on the stand for just six minutes.

Constand's lawyer, Dolores Troiani, told reporters that Jackson is "not telling the truth" and faulted Wyatt for circulating Jackson's statement while jurors were deliberating.

Prosecutors said that Cosby, at his deposition more than a decade ago, admitted to giving Constand pills (Cosby said it was Benadryl) and touching her sexually.

Jurors were expected to hear closing arguments and could get the case in the afternoon. Constand told the jury she was merely returning his calls about the women's basketball squad at Temple University, where she worked as director of team operations and he was a member of the board of trustees. Last week, neither she nor their four daughters appeared.

The defence opens it case Monday.

"It requires tremendous concentration and command of the facts, and the ability to synthesize that in real time", Hall said. But a spokesman said last week it still was a possibility. The jury also heard Cosby's version in the form of his police statement and his lurid deposition in her 2005 lawsuit.

Cosby won fame for stand-up comedy routines focusing on his Philadelphia childhood and growing up in a middle class black family.