DES MOINES, Iowa — The jury in the murder trial of Marvin Esquivel Lopez left the Polk County Justice Center Friday without a verdict.
Deliberations began Friday afternoon and will resume Monday morning.
The state provided a timeline, examinations of the gun and pictures of Rossibeth Flores Rodriguez and her two children. But the jury did not return a verdict before heading into the weekend.
"Did he show a glimmer of emotion when he was confronted with pictures of their dead bodies? No," Assistant Polk County Attorney Kevin Hathaway said.
Esquivel Lopez's defense team claims it was an accident and self-defense, and that Rossibeth had the gun, shot her children and told Esquivel Lopez she was going to shoot him too.
that's when they say he punched her hand, the gun fell, he grabbed it, and only shot once. but rossibeth had two bullets that struck her head.
"Mr. Lopez says he heard the two shots fire, but he didn't feel the trigger move more than once," his defense attorney Philip Reser said.
Des Moines Police Department Det. Jeff Shannon testified the gun was tested and said it fired properly, and there wasn't any way it could have fired two bullets with one pull of the trigger.
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Polk County Medical Examiner Dr. Joshua Akers stated during the trial Rossibeth had the gun's muzzle imprint on her head and indicated Esquivel Lopez shot her at point blank range.
His guilt "has absolutely been proven without a reasonable doubt," Hathaway said Friday.
During deliberations, the jury is reviewing each of Esquivel Lopez's three charges of Murder in the First Degree.
Each individual count can result in a guilty verdict, not guilty verdict or a guilty verdict to a lesser charge.
Watch: Wife of Des Moines triple murder suspect testifies she witnessed the killings