Testimony ends in Barry Bonds case

SAN FRANCISCO, April 6 (UPI) -- Barry Bonds' perjury trial adjourned in San Francisco Wednesday after the defense rested without calling any witnesses and the prosecution dropped one count.

Closing arguments before U.S. District Judge Susan Illston are set for Thursday, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

Prosecutors say they plan to argue for about an hour and a half and the defense for about three hours, so jury deliberation could begin Thursday.

The defense lawyer for the former San Francisco Giants' home run king, Allen Ruby, did not put a single witness on the stand.

Earlier Wednesday morning, prosecutors dropped one of the four perjury charges rather than contest the defense's argument that they failed to present sufficient evidence for it. Bonds now faces three counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for lying to a federal grand jury in December 2003 about using steroids.

Illston rebuffed the defense's request to strike testimony from other baseball players and testimony on steroid side effects.

Ruby said he would not call Steve Hoskins, Bond's former friend and aide who testified for the prosecution, because he would not introduce a recording Hoskins secretly made of a conversation with one of Bonds' lawyers.