TALLAHASSEE, Fla., June 5 (UPI) -- A six-member Circuit Court jury began deliberations Thursday on second-degree misdemeanor charges against Adrian McPherson, who as a member of the Florida State University football team allegedly bet on football games on the Internet in violation of state law.
Among the games McPherson is accused of betting were games the former quarterback played in, but he is not accused of throwing any contests or shaving points.
On Thursday, the defense rested after calling FSU head coach Bobby Bowden as a witness. Bowden told the jury he was not aware of any gambling by McPherson or anything else about the case.
He did say he heard rumors that McPherson was gambling in June 2002, prompting a motion for mistrial by defense attorney Grady Irvin, Jr. The motion was denied.
McPherson, 20, needed an acquittal to salvage his college career and any hopes of a career in the professional ranks.
But he also faces trials on felony charges of grand theft, forgery and utterance in the theft of a check from a Tallahassee business, and with several counts of passing bad checks at supermarkets.
McPherson was dismissed from the football team Nov. 25 after he was charged with stealing a blank check. He later enrolled at Murray State but left after a brief stay.
Irvin said in closing arguments that there was no solid evidence against his client.
"The time has come to stop the rumors and stop them now," Irvin said. "This was a chance to prove that he gambled on football games and they did not. They had all the resources at their disposal and they failed."
Prosecutor Georgia Cappleman had presented telephone and wire transfer records to show that McPherson bet on football games, but the transactions were made by his friends to protect his status as a football player.
"On Oct. 1 to Nov. 30, 2002, Adrian McPherson bet money or something of value. Did he bet on the football games? That is the question you should be asking.
"You might feel sorry for him and that's OK, but you can't base your decision on that," said Cappleman, daughter of Bill Cappleman, a Florida State quarterback in the 1960s.
Boyhood friend Otis Livingston testified that McPherson had bet on a Florida State-Notre Dame game and on a Miami-West Virginia game on the same day. He lost both $1,000 bets, Livingston said.
Melvin Capers Jr., another friend, said it was McPherson's idea to open an online betting account in Capers' name at SBG Global.
The two young men said the three would pool their bets and used a computer owned by Livingston's sister. They said it was McPherson's handwriting on a Western Union form used to wire money to cover the bets, but he didn't sign it.
"He knew he couldn't do it since he played football. They're not allowed to gamble," Livingston testified.
McPherson was a backup quarterback to start the season, but late in the year he was elevated to the first team when the starting quarterback, Chris Rix, began struggling.
