The jury began deliberations Tuesday following the closing arguments, which continued much of the same back-and-forth between the prosecution and the defense over whether Taylor was legally insane at the time of the murders or simply mentally ill and motivated by factors not stemming his illness.

Watson contended that not only did Taylor suffer from an "extensive and convoluted and deep" delusional complex throughout his day-to-day life but that this "overarching paranoid framework" finally ruptured the day of the murders, driving Taylor to murder Rite Aid pharmacist Michael Addo and neighbor Jordan Rogers.

"There was something seriously, seriously wrong with that profoundly mentally ill man that day," Watson said.

Taylor was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had a history of mental breakdowns with homicidal intentions, resulting in his being hospitalized several times, a state psychiatrist revealed in court Monday. Taylor had been off his antipsychotic medication for nearly three months before the murders.

John Dewane, Ingham County deputy chief assistant prosecutor, argued that Taylor acted on real-world motives, such as anger at Rogers for harassment and threats the night prior and frustration at Addo for allegedly blowing him off when he was purchasing eyedrops.

Dewane pressed the point that in a past case of hospitalization for a mental breakdown Taylor readily divulged his fear that his girlfriend's father was morphing into a werewolf — the supposed impetus for the May 12 slayings — whereas Taylor neither told this motive to detectives 45 minutes after the arrest nor to the state psychiatrist in their first interview, giving them instead a narrative with real-world motives.

It was only later, after having read two books on werewolves and vampires, that Taylor told the state psychiatrist in their third interview that he had killed Addo and Rogers out of fear at their morphing into werewolves before him, Dewane said.

But Watson contended that the late disclosure was due to state forensic psychiatrist Ellen Garver digging into the "why" and "why now" questions that interviewing detectives glossed over.

Garver testified Monday that paranoid schizophrenics are disorganized in thought and cannot relay these details in a coherent manner and that at the time of the third interview Taylor had begun antipsychotic treatment again, resulting in a more organized thought pattern.

While Garver argued Taylor's legal insanity, a private forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Taylor and gave his opinion at the request of the prosecutor's office contended Monday that although mentally ill Taylor still was in control of his actions at the time of the murders and comprehended the consequences and wrongfulness.