VISTA -- The jury deciding whether a man convicted of torturing and killing an Escondido toddler should now die himself signaled late Thursday that they may not be able to reach a decision.

After fewer than three hours of deliberations, Superior Court Judge Joan Weber sent the panel home for the long holiday weekend after they sent out a note saying they were deadlocked.

She ordered the jury to resume deliberations Monday morning to decide whether Jose Maurice Castaneda should be executed or sentenced to life in prison for what prosecutors said was repeated brutality of a little boy barely old enough to talk.

Earlier this week, the same panel of four men and eight women convicted Castaneda, 24, of first-degree murder, torture and child abuse in the beating death of 2-year-old Cesar Razo on June 25, 2005.

Prosecutors say Castaneda, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, beat his girlfriend's toddler so badly the Escondido child lost one-third of his blood to internal bleeding.

Castaneda, who has no criminal record of violence nor a history of abuse, maintains he never hit the child. His attorney, Allen Bloom, placed the blame on Cesar's mother.

The Castaneda case marks the first time in nearly four years that a North County jury has been asked to recommend execution for a killer. The last time a jury based in Vista did so was fall 2005, when a panel agreed that Adrian Camacho should die for gunning down Oceanside police Officer Tony Zeppetella during a traffic stop.

In order for a jury to recommend a death sentence, the vote must be unanimous among the 12 jurors.

The split in Castaneda's jury is unknown. If they should fail to agree, Weber must declare a mistrial.

It would be up to prosecutors to decide whether they want to retry the case in front of a new jury. But they would have to mount the entire case again -- in Castaneda's case, the trial lasted six weeks -- because the new jury must hear all of the evidence to determine whether execution is the warranted punishment.

If prosecutors choose not to pursue the death penalty; Castaneda would receive a sentence of life in prison without parole.

During the trial, Deputy District Attorneys Lucy Weismantel and Keith Watanabe showed the jury a videotape Castaneda made of the child, in which he had forced the naked 23-pound toddler to point out his bruises for the camera about a week before he died.

And even though Castaneda was behind the camera, the video looked into Castaneda's soul, Weismantel told the jury Thursday morning before deliberations began. The video was proof of Castaneda's sadism, she said.

"We cannot imagine the suffering this child went through every day," Weismantel said. "This man took away his dignity; he took away his spirit long before he took his life."

An autopsy showed Cesar's thymus gland, which the jury was told regulates stress in the body, had shrunk, possibly from the stress he was under. "He was literally being scared to death by this man," Weismantel argued.

Cesar's 32-inch-long body bore 354 bruises, marks or lacerations. His liver was lacerated. His skull was fractured. His brain had bled. Even his penis had welts. He had been choked on several occasions, according to testimony.

"Cesar should not be forgotten," Weismantel argued. "And this man should not be forgiven."

Castaneda's attorney, Allen Bloom, asked the panel of four men and eight women to spare his client from execution, telling them, "There is value in that man."

Before Castaneda moved in with Maria Razo and her kids, he was living with another woman and her young children -- who testified that Castaneda had not been violent, and had been a father to them.

Bloom read to the jury from a Valentine's Day letter by one of the children, a 10-year-old girl who wrote to Castaneda in jail.

In the letter, decorated with hand-drawn red hearts, the child told Castaneda that he was "the best father" and "I love you very much."

"This is a man who gives and receives love," Bloom told the panel." There is value to him and his life."

Bloom also asked the jury to consider any "lingering doubt" they might have about who killed Cesar, a reference to Maria Razo.

Two years ago, Razo pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and child abuse for her role in her son's death. She was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison.

The little boy was, by many accounts, probably dead when his mother and her boyfriend wrapped him in a green blanket and drove him to the emergency room at Palomar Medical Center.

The final beating, the one that killed Cesar, lasted 20, maybe 30 minutes. He was choked, slammed into walls and hit so hard in the stomach he threw up, prosecutors argued.

Near the start of the attack, according to testimony, Cesar cried out "Mommy." But his mother, an abused woman herself, told the jury she did not respond and instead remained seated on the floor, fixing her 5-year-old daughter's long hair.

Maria Razo told the jury she heard Cesar moan. And then he stopped.

Call staff writer Teri Figueroa at 760-740-5442.