FRENCH VALLEY -- Deliberations began Thursday afternoon in a conspiracy case revolving around the alleged scheme of a Murrieta pimp to have one of his underage prostitutes killed because he believed she was cooperating with police.

Jurors in a Southwest Justice Center courtroom heard two days of closing arguments before beginning their deliberations about 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The trial of Michael Ward, Ira Henry Hatchett, and Andre Jeriel Jacques, all 24, and Ward's 55-year-old mother, Damita, started Sept. 29.

Now all that's left is for jurors to decide the fate of the four defendants.

Michael Ward faces the most serious charges and longest potential sentence should he be convicted. He is charged with conspiring to commit murder, dissuade a witness and commit robbery. He also is accused of committing the crimes in association with a criminal street gang, which authorities say members called Pimp'n Ho's Daily, or PHD.

If convicted as charged, Ward faces a possible prison term of 25 years to life.

After being arrested on pimping charges in August 2005, Ward is accused of making jailhouse phone calls to several people -- including Hatchett and Jacques -- trying to have the then-16-year-old Temecula girl killed.

Authorities say the only reason the teen was not killed is because the man Ward was set to pay $5,000 to commit the crime was arrested on unrelated charges in San Diego the night before the alleged slaying was supposed to happen.

Deputy District Attorney Brandon Smith, in his final argument Thursday, described the case as a big puzzle, telling jurors there is only one way to piece together all the evidence. The prosecutor asked jurors to carefully connect the hours and hours of phone conversations, which included slang and code words.

"If you put every piece of this puzzle together … you see every one of these people are guilty of what they are charged with," Smith told the jury.

The only defendant who has made any sort of concession is Michael Ward, who testified during the trial and admitted that he tried to have the underage girl intimidated into not testifying against him in his pimping case.

Ward denies that he intended to have the girl killed, but said he just wanted her frightened enough to stay quiet.

In his closing argument Wednesday, Ward's attorney James Curtis, asked jurors to convict his client on the charges of conspiracy to commit witness intimidation and to commit robbery, but not for the murder conspiracy or gang allegations.

On Thursday, the prosecutor described what Curtis did as "damage control."

"Recognize it for what it is," Smith told jurors.

Hatchett and Jacques each are charged with conspiring to dissuade a witness and to commit robbery as well as the gang allegation. If convicted of those charges, each could face a possible 15-years-to-life prison sentence.

Hatchett served as his own attorney during the trial and spent more than 90 minutes Thursday on his closing argument.

Hatchett reminded jurors that he stopped Ward from going after the underage girl July 15, 2005, when Ward first wanted to intimidate her.

"That plan didn't go through because I talked him out of it," he said.

Then Ward was arrested and hatched a new plan, but Hatchett said he still wanted nothing to do with it.

"(Ward) didn't care I didn't want to be involved, all he cared about was getting out of jail and not face these charges," Hatchett said.

"We didn't have the same understanding, so the agreement wasn't there," he said.

Jacques' attorney, Lorene Mies, told jurors that they all learned during the trial that Ward was controlling, demanding and quick-tempered.

"That may have worked well with his 25-30 prostitutes," Mies said, but it didn't with the men who were supposed to be his equals.

She told jurors her client was simply helping Ward out with getting money to have put on his books at the jail and that Jacques never joined in any criminal conspiracy with Ward.

She then listed several times that Jacques gave Ward reasons why he couldn't do things for him.

"Andre has done nothing for him, because he doesn't intend to do anything for him," Mies said.

She asked jurors to look carefully at the evidence and whether there are reasonable interpretations of what was said.

Damita Ward is charged with being an accessory and authorities say she helped her son by facilitating the calls made from the jail via three-way calls placed to others, a type of call that is prohibited by jail regulations.

If convicted, she faces a maximum of three years in prison.

Her attorney, James Bender, told jurors she did not know the content of the conversations her son was having in those calls. He said his client was not making the calls to facilitate a conspiracy started by her son.

Jurors will return to the courthouse Monday morning to continue their deliberations.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.