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Before the jury began to deliberate at 12:30 p.m. whether to sentence William Morva to life in prison or the death penalty, they listened to the prosecution and the defense make their final arguments in the case.

Montgomery County Commonwealth's Attorney Brad Finch told jurors that Morva is a future danger to society and should be put to death.

What makes Morva so dangerous, he said, "is that he is both extremely intelligent and also extremely violent.

"In a split second, this defendant can go from calm and friendly and composed to deadly, brutal and violent," Finch said, reminding jurors that they had heard testimony that Morva was friendly to hospital workers just before he beat a deputy unconscious and killed hospital security guard Derrick McFarland.

After killing McFarland, Finch said, Morva "had over a day to think, 'I've killed a man. What have I done?'"

But about 30 hours after he killed McFarland, Morva killed Montgomery County Sheriff's Cpl. Eric Sutphin.

"Because of the defendant's selfish and deadly actions, two men cannot raise their families. . . . Four children cannot see their daddies."

Defense attorney Tony Anderson told jurors to draw on a higher power in determining Morva's fate.

He asked them not to be guided by sympathy and told them Finch had not shown that Morva would be a future danger to society, mainly because Morva's future society would be a maximum-security prison.

If Morva were to be back on the streets "among us," Anderson said, "then the evidence of future dangerousness would have significant weight."

Morva liked the outdoors and being with people but hated being in jail, Anderson said, and that's why he escaped.

"Mr. Morva was trying to get away from the thing that I'm suggesting to you is the punishment."

"If we kill him, if your verdict kills him, aren't we allowing him to escape?" Anderson said. "Don't let your hands unlock the chains, open the door and allow Mr. Morva to escape again."

Because it's the prosecution's burden to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, Finch was allowed to speak again.

He told jurors: "We're talking about a prisoner here who hates the police," and he asked them to think about the safety of prison guards.

After just a month in the Montgomery County Jail, he reminded jurors, Morva wrote his mother a letter in which he said he would kill an unarmed guard. After a year there, he killed two people and beat another.

"What," Finch asked jurors, "is the prospect of life in prison going to cause this defendant to feel justified in doing?"