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It has been an emotional afternoon in the courtroom, as jurors heard about the impact the shootings of Derrick McFarland and Cpl. Eric Sutphin have had on their families.

Some of the most powerful testimony came from Jeaneen Sutphin, Eric Sutphin's mother, who looked directly at Morva for a moment as she took the witness stand.

Jeaneen Sutphin said that Morva didn't have to kill her son. He could have shot him in the leg, she said, to keep Eric Sutphin from pursuing him.

The last witness called to the stand before a short break was Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Whitt, who cried as he described having to tell Tamara Sutphin and Jeaneen Sutphin their husband and son had been killed.

The sentencing phase in Morva's trial has begun.

Jurors have heard from five witnesses so far, including the woman who worked as a clerk at the Deli Mart on Glade Road in Blacksburg when Morva -- with a loaded shotgun -- tried to rob it in August 2005.

The jury also heard from two women who were nurses at Montgomery Regional Hospital the night Derrick McFarland was killed; both have testified they tried to save McFarland.

Dawn Doss and Melissa Epperly testified today that they have been haunted by memories of that night. Both are in counseling and take medication and suffer from nightmares.

Doss quit working at the hospital. Epperly still works there, but said every time she walks down the hallway where McFarland was shot she pictures the pool of blood he left there. She said she remembers holding his hand and telling him that she had tried to save his life.

The jury has found Morva guilty on all charges: three counts of capital murder, two counts of use of a firearm in commission of murder, assault and battery of a law enforcement officer and escaping with force.

Morva stood with his hands in his pockets as the verdicts were read and didn't appear to react.

The court is taking a brief recess before it enters the penalty phase. Several witnesses are expected to testify before the jury is asked to decide whether Morva should be put to death or spend the rest of his life in prison.

Two and a half hours after they went back to the jury room, jurors have asked for lunch.

Court is in recess until 12:30, and lunch is being brought in for jurors so they can continue deliberating during the lunch break.

At 9:04 a.m., the jury of nine women and five men, including two alternates, was instructed to leave the courtroom and begin deliberations.

Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs told jurors to first select a foreperson. He gave them the 28 instructions he read to them yesterday.

Grubbs also told jurors that a bailiff would remove two alternates from the group.

Jurors are making their way through the metal detectors at the doorway of the Washington County Circuit Court in Abingdon this morning, where court is scheduled to get under way about 8:45.

Yesterday ended with the prosecution and the defense presenting their closing statements to jurors, with the prosecution saying William Morva should be found guilty of all seven charges against him -- including three counts of capital murder.

The defense said Morva should instead be found guilty of second-degree murder in the killings of Derrick McFarland and Eric Sutphin.

If Morva is not found guilty of either count of capital murder in the two deaths, the third count -- with which he is charged because he is accused of killing two men in less than three years -- will automatically drop. The killings must be premeditated for that charge to be valid.

Jurors have been sent home for today, after hearing the prosecution and the defense present their closing arguments in William Morva's capital murder trial.

Jurors will be given the option of finding Morva guilty of second-degree murder if they feel that he is not guilty of capital murder.

Defense attorney Tony Anderson told jurors there's no evidence that the killings of Derrick McFarland and Cpl. Eric Sutphin were premeditated. He said jurors should find Morva guilty of second-degree murder instead.

The jury will begin deliberations in the morning.

After calling only one witness, Morva's defense attorneys have rested their case.

They informed the court that Morva chose to exercise his Fifth Amendment right and does not plan to testify at this phase of the trial.

Morva asked the judge if he could add something. When told he could, he said it was his desire to testify but that, at the advice of his attorneys, he would not.

Circuit Judge Ray Grubbs told Morva that he should indeed follow his attorneys' advice. Not doing so, he said, could result in "drastic results" that would not be to his advantage.

The court has recessed for about half an hour while attorneys put together instructions for the jury. The case is expected to go to the jury this afternoon.

William Morva's defense attorneys have called their first witness: Dr. Mark Ringold, a Christiansburg gastroenterologist who treated Morva.

Ringold testified that he first saw Morva in early 2003. Morva was diagnosed with moderate to severe irritable bowel syndrome.

He complained that it would take him up to four hours to have a bowel movement. They would often be bloody and caused him extreme stomach pain, Ringold said.

Court has been recessed until 12:30 p.m. for lunch. Here are more details jurors heard from four witnesses today before the prosecution rested its case against Morva:

The first was investigator Brad Roop with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. He read a letter Morva wrote to his mother that was dated Sept. 14, 2005, and described conditions at the Montgomery County Jail, where he had been incarcerated about a month earlier on attempted robbery charges.

The letter began, "Dear Mom, I'm getting very sick."

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