PORTLAND — The jury will continue its deliberations in the manslaughter trial of Ernest Weidul on Wednesday morning.

Weidul, 52, is charged in the 2010 death of Roger Downs Jr. The two men first met after Weidul had a minor mishap with his pickup truck outside the Forest Avenue apartment building where Downs lived. After a night of drinking together, Downs went to the hospital with injuries. He died the next day after going into acute respiratory distress.

The prosecution and defense delivered their closing arguments to the jury today. Each side presented differing version of what took place between the men that night and how Downs may have contracted pneumonia as a result.

Deputy Attorney General William Stokes said Weidul beat Downs ferociously – striking him 30 or more times while holding him down – because of alcoholic anger run amok. Stokes argued that Weidul caused a neck injury that led to a closing of Downs’ airways. Stokes also said that if Downs had aspiration pneumonia – caused when foreign matter gets into the lungs – he most likely aspirated after passing out from the beating.

Thomas Connolly, one of Weidul’s lawyers, argued that the defendant was acting in self-defense. The lawyer said that blood splatter evidence indicates that Weidul was pinned down on the couch by Downs. Connolly said that while Downs’ facial injuries looked frightening, Weidul used only as much force as was necessary. Connolly also said that Downs must have contracted pneumonia from Weidul by drinking from the same glass and aspirating after vomiting.

The jury got the case this afternoon and did not reach a verdict before the end of the day.