PULASKI -- A Dublin man accused of persuading another man to kill a woman as part of an initiation into a gang told jurors during his trial Tuesday that he was friends with the woman and wouldn't have wanted her dead.

French David Kanode, a 33-year-old tattoo artist known by the nickname Dizzy, was the last witness to testify for the defense at his trial in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

Kanode is charged with solicitation to commit murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the slaying of 42-year-old Dawn Lee Meredith Wright of Radford on Jan. 21, 2008.

"I wouldn't do that to somebody," Kanode said when asked if he told Richard Forest Mabry to kill Wright. "I'm not going to ruin somebody's life."

Mabry, 42, of Dublin pleaded guilty in December 2008 to first-degree murder. He admitted that he stabbed Wright to death then dragged her to the side of a road at the base of Bloomer's Mountain, where her body was found two days later.

He is serving 30 years in prison.

Mabry has testified that he didn't know Wright and killed her only because Kanode told him to. He said he had become a prospective member of the Pagans motorcycle gang and Kanode threatened him and his family.

Kanode, who seemed relaxed during his testimony, called Wright a "close friend" whom he had known for 15 years. He said he is not a member of the Pagans and that he never talked about the Pagans with Mabry.

Kanode's attorney, Jonathon Venzie, noted during his closing argument that Mabry has told several versions of the events of the night Wright was killed.

"You gauge the credibility of that monster," he told jurors.

Kanode, he said, has told the same story since the day Wright's body was found.

Assistant Pulaski County Commonwealth's Attorney Jason Wolfrey told jurors that Mabry wasn't smart enough to come up with a story that would dupe all the investigators who have worked on the case.

In Mabry, Wolfrey said, Kanode found "the one guy that would be gullible enough to believe this whole thing about the Pagans and put him up to murdering Dawn Wright."

Wolfrey and Pulaski County Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Fleenor noted that some of Kanode's testimony didn't match up with his previous comments to investigators or with the testimony of witnesses who have no apparent stake in the case.

For example, Kanode testified that when Mabry left with Wright, he thought they were going to buy drugs. But he said he told a woman he visited that night that Mabry was going to drop Wright off and would be back shortly. Kanode testified that he said that because he didn't want to mention drugs in front of a child who was in the room.

Fleenor and Wolfrey suggested that Kanode phrased it that way to the woman because he knew Wright wouldn't be coming back.

At one point during Tuesday's trial, Venzie called for a mistrial based on what he called prosecutorial misconduct.

During his closing argument, Fleenor told jurors there is a saying that "if you put the devil on trial, you have to go to hell to get your witnesses."

"He just called my client the devil," Venzie told Circuit Court Judge Colin Gibb. His motion for a mistrial was overruled.

Fleenor made the statement after Venzie noted that most of the people who testified during the trial are convicted felons.

After hearing from 17 witnesses over two days, jurors got the case at about 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Gibb told them they could either stay late Tuesday night or reconvene this morning. They chose to return to court this morning to begin to discuss the case.