RADFORD -- After hearing dramatic closing arguments in the case against photographer Bob Shell, a jury met for 5 1/2 hours Thursday but was unable to decide if Shell is guilty of the eight charges remaining against him.

Jurors began deliberating just before lunchtime in the felony homicide case against Shell, who is charged with accidentally killing 19-year-old Marion Franklin by giving her a lethal dose of morphine at his West Main Street studio on June 3, 2003.

Two people have testified that they saw Shell squeeze what they believed to be morphine into Franklin's wine glass that day, but Shell said from the witness stand Wednesday that it was the herbal supplement echinacea.

The jury was given the option of convicting Shell of involuntary manslaughter if it finds that he was responsible for Franklin's death through gross negligence but not by giving her morphine.

Shell also is charged with two counts of distributing morphine, possession of morphine, distributing diazepam, two counts of attempted animate object sexual penetration and one count of attempted forcible sodomy.

He had also been charged with three counts of defiling a corpse, but those charges were dismissed before closing arguments Thursday at the request of Commonwealth's Attorney Chris Rehak.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Jonathon Venzie told jurors that police developed a theory about what happened as soon as they walked into Shell's studio the night Franklin died "and then set about methodically and criminally making it look like that's what happened."

Police deleted photos and documents and changed the clock on Shell's camera, which would explain why the clock was correct when checked by police, Venzie said.

"These people," he said, pointing his pen toward several Radford police officers who were seated in the courtroom, "I swear if they walked into a movie theater and saw a robbery going on on the screen, they'd pull their guns out."

Venzie said Franklin, a regular drug user, was Shell's lover and was responsible for her own death.

"She was trying to live so many lives at once that little body couldn't keep up," he said.

In his closing argument, Rehak portrayed Shell as a predator.

Shell was frustrated by the lack of a physical relationship with Franklin, he said, and gave her morphine to ensure she didn't wake up while he took advantage of her.

Franklin was a puppet, he said, "and the defendant was a puppetmaster."

As for Shell's last-minute explanation from the witness stand Wednesday that he had given Franklin liquid echinacea the day she died and the people in his studio must have mistaken that for morphine, Rehak sounded incredulous.

"Echinacea?" he said. "The defendant's created stories are unbelievable and borderline ridiculous."

The jury of seven women and five men reached verdicts on some of the charges against Shell but not others. No one but the jurors knows which or how many have been decided.

At the end of the day, the jurors put their verdict forms into an envelope and sealed it out of the presence of others. It was then placed inside a safe in the sheriff's office.

Jurors will begin discussing the case again this morning.

They asked for several of the 70 items -- 54 of the prosecution's and 16 of the defense's -- that have been entered into evidence, including several stacks of photos. They also asked for the morphine bottle, video shot the day Franklin died and her death certificate.