The Allen Blackthorne trial finally took on circus status. I stepped off the elevator to attend closing arguments and throngs of spectators forced me to stop in my tracks. People two-wide and 100-deep lined up to the courtroom doors. A federal marshall named Bobby attempted to organize the bunch, allowing the attorneys first, family second and media third.

      In the end two courtrooms were packed, including one for an overflow crowd equipped with a big screen TV.

      They weren't disappointed. The attorneys, dressed in conservative closing argument navy and black suits, put on their best performances, and for nearly three solid hours, no one breathed.

      The government got the first shot. Prosecutor Richard Durbin stood up. He is a tall, long, quiet man with brown hair in stark contrast to a white beard whose unassuming demeanor belies a stinging memory for the details. Durbin used Blackthorne's own words against him repeatedly. "He (Blackthorne) didn't hate Sheila Bellush, he just hated the things she did," Durbin said.

      Durbin asked the jury not to buy it. He talked about how "in 1997 a cold war became a hot war." A decade of divorce conflicts came to a head. Blackthorne tried to get full custody of both daughters, Stevie and Daryl. Sheila Bellush countered by threatening to raise never-proven sexual abuse allegations. Blackthorne decided to try to terminate parental rights.

     Durbin wrapped up talking about Blackthorne's treatment of his girls once news of their mother's murder spread to Texas. He had never contacted them. Durbin said "a truly innocent person would have instinctively, reactively reached out. He is a man with a guilty conscience, a man with a guilty conscience would not reach out."

     Defense attorney Richard Lubin came out of the gate strong. One major theme dominated his closing, the denigration of the prosecution's star witness Danny Rocha, Blackthorne's former golfing partner and bookie. Lubin described him as "a patholical liar. He is a master manipulator. His entire life is a hustle. Well lets take Danny out of the equation, without Danny Rocha there is no case."

     Lubin waved jailhouse letters written by Rocha asking friends to lie for him and help him implicate Blackthorne. Lubin told jurors Rocha came forward now not to "do the right thing" as Rocha had claimed but to please prosecutors in hopes of getting a better deal and a transfer from a state prison to a more comfortable federal facility.

     He put a smug mug shot of Rocha on courtroom television monitors, "Those are the eyes of a sociopathic liar," Lubin said. He threw his arms in the air with a show of disgust, knocking over the microphone and creating a loud noise that resounded during the uncomfortable moment.

     In the end I believe as good as Lubin was, he teetered on a fine line between passionate and patronizing to the jury.

      The government gets the last word in federal court. This time lead prosecutor John Murphy stood up. In 38 minutes there wasn't a dry eye in two courtrooms. Sheila Bellush and Allen Blackthorne's younger daughter Daryl sat in the front row next to her stepfather Jamie.

      This trial has provided some healing for the family. Murphy pointed to Daryl as he told jurors "this poor little girl who gave him the partial address" reminding them Blackthorne coaxed the Bellush family's Sarasota address from the then-12-year-old girl with the promise of a Christmas visit. He never called her again. On this day Daryl stole a few glances of the man she calls "Dad." He looked back and Daryl quietly cried.

     Murphy held up a gun as he spoke the last words the jurors heard from the prosecution before beginning deliberations: "He (Blackthorne) was so concerned about those girls that he butchered their mother."

     The panel of eight men and four women talked for two hours, ate pizza and picked a foreperson. He's the "Marlboro Man" lookalike in the front row of the jury box - a retired rodeo clown.