Both the state and defense rested their sides at 2 p.m. Wednesday in the capital murder retrial of Mason Wayne Sisk.

Closing arguments are scheduled to be presented Thursday, April 27, when court reconvenes at 9 a.m. On Wednesday, after the jury was excused for the day, Circuit Court Judge Chad Wise called Mason to the bench and asked him if he wanted to take the stand and testify in his own defense, which he declined.

Sisk, 18, confessed to the murders of five family members in the presence of former Limestone County sheriff Mike Blakely and his investigator Johnny Morrell in what defense attorneys say was a high-pressure environment.

Morrell was recalled to the witness stand Wednesday morning. Morrell a digital media expert and former narcotics officer, was present and participated in Sisk’s Sept. 3, 2019, interview in which Sisk confessed.

Sisk, who was 14 at the time, was accused of the Labor Day 2019 weekend shooting deaths of five members of his family, confessed on tape, but his defense attorneys say he was subjected to adult-suspect interrogation tactics before he broke down.

Mason is charged with the deaths of his father, John Wayne Sisk, 38; stepmother, Mary Sisk, 35; brother, Grayson “Kane”, 6; sister, Aurora “Rory”, 4, and infant brother, Colson, 6 months, while they lay sleeping.

Mason called 911 to report the killings, saying that he was playing video games in the basement of his parents’ home a couple hours after the family returned from a holiday trip to Gulf Breeze, Fla., when he heard what sounded like five gunshots and footsteps running out the door.

Mason said when he went upstairs to investigate, he saw a vehicle — car or truck that sounded like a Chevy — fleeing the driveway. He then discovered his five family members dead in their beds.

Sisk confessed to the killings to Blakely and his investigator Johnny Morrell several hours later. Defense attorneys Shay Golden and Michael Sizemore say Mason was treated like a suspect soon after deputies arrived at the murder scene on Ridge Road in Elkmont and investigators, who ordered Mason detained but not arrested, looked no further.

Sizemore said both Morrell and Blakely suggested possible scenarios to Mason of what led to the shootings, telling him that they would “get him the help that he needs.” Suggestions of leniency is one of the stated tactics in the Reid interrogation tactics that nearly all law enforcement officers are schooled in. Morrell, who said he is trained in the Reid method, acknowledged that that is a standard interrogation tactic to try to “get to the truth.”

Blakely is heard saying: “Mason, whatever happened tonight, if you tell the truth, you will be much better off. I don’t know what kind of help you need, but let’s get this over.”

Mason is heard on the tape after he said, “Yeah, I killed them,” to say his stepmother, Mary Sisk, was always on him and his siblings about their manners.

Also in Wednesday morning evidence was transcripts of Mary Sisk’s cellphone messages. The phone was finally accessed after three years by an FBI affiliated testing laboratory on Redstone Arsenal in September, leading Circuit Judge Chad Wise to declare a mistrial because neither defense nor the state had had time to examine the messages for bearing on the case.

In an ongoing exchange of texts between Mary and Mason beginning in Nov. 3, 2018, and culminating on Aug. 24, 2019, Mary is seen to have scolded Mason repeatedly about not doing his laundry. Mary was to take Mason’s phone away from him about a week before the killings.

The final exchange on Aug. 24 was:

“Mason, Please bring your phone upstairs.”

(Minutes later)

“Mason, Please bring your phone upstairs.

(Minutes later)

“Now!”

After the jury was excused, defense attorneys raised the possibility that the reading of Mason’s four-count indictment to the jury could violate the double jeopardy clause. The first count states that the defendant shot five family members, listing their names, but the other three counts list the children separately.

Golden said after court was dismissed for the day that Wise said he would read the indictment in full to the jury as it is written.