Dec. 3 (UPI) — A jury began deliberations on Friday in disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein‘s sexual assault trial in Los Angeles.
The deliberations began Friday afternoon after prosecutors concluded their closing remarks. The deliberations will continue on Monday after the weekend.
“Rapists rape. You can look at the pattern,” prosecutor Paul Thompson told jurors Friday, according to CNN.
“You have irrefutable, overwhelming evidence about the nature of this man and what he did to these women. Do the right thing.”
If convicted, the 70-year-old Weinstein faces a sentence of up to life in prison plus five years for charges including two counts of forcible rape and five counts of sexual assault involving four women.
In his closing arguments on Thursday, Weinstein’s lawyer Alan Jackson emphasized to the jury that Weinstein would need to be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Deadline reported.
“When you scrutinize each of the Jane Does’ individual allegations, which is your job, it’s clear that the people have not presented evidence … beyond any reasonable doubt,” Jackson said.
Jury selection in the trial began in the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Oct. 10.
Weinstein, who was previously convicted of a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape in New York, was first charged with sexual assault in Los Angeles in 2020 as the film producer’s trial in New York was beginning.
At the time, Weinstein was accused of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another over a two-day period in 2013 and charged with four counts, one each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.
Los Angeles prosecutors added an additional charge in April 2020 based on a 2010 alleged incident in Beverly Hills as Weinstein began serving his 23-year sentence for his conviction in the New York trial.
Later that year, prosecutors again added six new charges — three counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation — for additional accusations including that he raped a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2004 and another woman in 2009 and 2010.
He was later indicted by a grand jury working with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in July 2021. The grand jury found that there was enough evidence to charge Weinstein with the sexual assault of the five women over nearly a decade.
Weinstein’s trial is reaching its end after a mistrial was declared earlier this week in the Danny Masterson rape case.
Masterson, the 46-year-old star of “That ’70s Show,” was arrested in June 2020 and charged with raping three women between 2001 and 2003 at his home in the Hollywood Hills. He faced a maximum sentence of 45 years to life in prison if convicted.
The mistrial was declared after jurors said they were deadlocked on reaching a verdict nearly two weeks prior.
