After deliberating for about five hours Thursday afternoon, the jury was set to return Friday to decide the fate of the suspect charged in the December 2021 stabbing and shooting death of a Pittsburgh man in Butler.

Deliberations began after attorneys presented closing arguments in the case against Hassan Brack, 38, of Huntington, who Butler police charged with homicide and other crimes in the death of Hakeem Moran, 31, at 109 College Ave.

The Common pleas Court trial began Monday.

Police allege Brack and co-defendants Kahlil Z.H. Rippy Jr., 26, and Brooke R. Fair Smith, 31, both of Butler, planned to rob Moran of drugs.

Fair Smith set up the robbery by buying drugs from Moran then signaling Brack and Rippy, who were waiting nearby, to enter Moran’s home after she left. Brack and Rippy entered, and a struggle ensued. Brack dropped a gun, but drew a knife and stabbed Moran before retrieving the gun and shooting him in the back. Moran died Dec. 6 in a hospital.

Rippy and Fair Smith testified Tuesday under an agreement with the district attorney’s office in which Rippy will be sentenced to serve 4 to 10 years in prison and Fair Smith will face 3.5 to 10 years in prison.

In her closing argument, defense attorney Rebecca Black asked the jury to find Brack not guilty because police conducted a shoddy investigation that relies on “proven liars” willing to say anything to avoid prison.

She said Rippy and Fair Smith lied to police to avoid possible life sentences.

Black said police did not attempt to verify anything Rippy and Fair Smith said because their statements fit their goal to convict Brack.

Police identified Brack in surveillance footage recorded only at night because he walked with a limp, she said.

Black said police testified that they did not interview a woman who Brack said he was with on Dec. 5 because they couldn’t find her, but she and Brack were at his home when police were there.

Screenshots of Facebook messages sent between Brack and Fair Smith were used as evidence, but the messages were not found on the phones and police did not try to verify them through Facebook, Black said.

Three witnesses who lived in the College Avenue building and were there when Moran was killed were not called to testify because two of them didn’t pick Brack’s photo out of a line up and the third said Brack was not the man who killed Moran, Black said.

She said DNA from Fair Smith — not Brack — was found on the knife.

Assistant district attorney Robert Zanella said no investigation is perfect and they don’t have to be to prove guilt.

Zanella said eye witness testimony can be unreliable and used himself as an example. He said he was driving behind his wife who was in another vehicle when he witnessed a car hit his wife’s vehicle and drive away. He said told police that car was a black BMW sedan. Police located the vehicle, but it was a black Mercedes coupé, he said.

“I was wrong, but I was sure I was right,” Zanella said.

People who witness chaotic events don’t always remember correctly, he said.

Surveillance videos verify location data from Brack’s phone showing he traveled from his home to Moran’s home, and show him leaving the scene, Zanella said. Brack told police he had a leg injury, and the videos show a limping man, he said.

The screenshots of text messages were taken from Brack’s phone and were not sent to him, Zanella said.

He said a video of Brack returning home shows a man with a limp more severe than in the videos of him recorded earlier in the day getting help to get back into his home. Zanella argued the limp got worse after Brack ran from the scene.

He said Fair Smith and Rippy were drug dealers who were not truthful with police at first, but they eventually cooperated because they were facing life in prison if they had been convicted in Moran’s death.

“When you have a play cast in hell, you don’t have angels as actors,” Zanella said.