Jurors began deliberating Friday in the first-degree murder trial of John Lee Edmondson, who prosecutors say fatally shot his cousin and a local chef after a funeral reception in St. Paul in 2023. Jurors left for the day without a verdict and will resume deliberations Monday morning at the Ramsey Co unty Courthouse in St. Paul. They deliberated for about five hours after the defense delivered its closing argument. The prosecution made its closing Thursday. Larry Jiles Jr., 34, and Edmondson’s cousin, Troy Robert Kennedy, 37, were shot outside a senior-living apartment building at University Avenue and Dale Street on Feb. 25, 2023, following a repast for an 80-year-old woman. Witnesses told police it was peaceful, until an argument broke out. Larry Jiles Jr., left, and Troy Kennedy. (Courtesy of the family) Jiles and Kennedy were relatives of the woman, and Jiles made most of the food for the gathering. “By all accounts, Larry Jiles Jr. was doing some good things that day for the family,” Edmondson’s attorney, Ryan Pacyga, told jurors Friday. “That is commendable. But there are some things that just change everything, aren’t there?” When Jiles “brought the gun out to the crowd,” Pacyga said, “that changed everything.” Edmondson, 54, of St. Louis Park, is claiming defense of others in Jiles’ killing. He testified that he was driving his mother and niece in the parking lot when his mother spotted Jiles with a gun. Edmondson “made a beeline” over to the group and tried to push down the gun as Jiles was raising it, Pacyga told jurors. He fired twice, hitting Jiles in the left and back sides of his neck. Pacyga said there is no evidence the others who were standing beside Jiles and arguing were armed with guns. John Lee Edmondson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office) “When Larry is raising the gun, it’s completely reasonable to believe that in that fraction of a second other people are exposed to death or great bodily harm,” Pacyga said. The charges say a witness told police that Jiles was not carrying a gun when he was shot and it did not appear that he provoked an altercation. Pacyga pointed out to jurors that 11 months later, Jiles’ sister, Chanel Jiles, told police in a follow-up interview that he did have a gun on him. It was never recovered. Edmondson had nothing to do with the argument, Pacyga said. He reminded jurors how they saw a video from inside the community room showing Edmondson and Jiles getting along, taking a selfie or watching a video on a cellphone. “There’s nothing going on with John Edmondson where there’s a plot to kill,” Pacyga said. Meanwhile, an autopsy showed Kennedy had two “distant gunshot wounds” — one to his left forearm and the other to his left hip that cut across an artery. Pacyga said Edmondson acted in self-defense in Kennedy’s killing because of the ensuing gun battle. He noted how police recovered seven casings in an area where the shooter was firing back at Edmondson and where Kennedy was running. Police tape and evidence markers at the scene of a double homicide in the parking lot of Frogtown Square at University Avenue and Dale Street in St. Paul on Feb. 25, 2023. (John Autey / Pioneer Press) Police found 39 casings in the parking lot, 10 of which were fired from Edmondson’s gun. “(Edmondson) is the first one to fire,” Assistant Ramsey County Attorney Hassan Tahir said in the state’s closing. “Then it became almost a war zone after that. But he’s the one that made a decision to pull that trigger not once, but twice. And many times thereafter.” Video footage from the nearby Neighborhood Development Center showed how quickly things escalated, Tahir said. “It was six seconds after (Edmondson) got out of the car and until people started running,” he said. “And the defendant, based on what he’s observed doing in this video, simply does not fit the criteria of defending others when he shot Larry Jiles Jr.” Tahir said it happened so quickly that Edmondson “could have made no actual determination of what was even going on before he fired those shots.” Edmondson shot Kennedy as he was firing back at others, Tahir said. Prosecutors initially charged Edmondson with two counts of second-degree intentional murder and one count of second-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony. A grand jury in September indicted him on six counts: first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree intentional murder while committing a felony, two counts of second-degree intentional murder, second-degree unintentional murder and possession of a firearm by an ineligible person. Edmondson has a prior murder conviction. On Oct. 5, 1993, he drove three men to Selby Avenue and Milton Street in St. Paul, and one of them fatally shot Dural Woods, 19, during an attempted robbery, according to a newspaper report from the time. A jury in May 1994 convicted Edmondson of aiding and abetting second-degree murder. A judge sentenced him to 18 years in prison, which was one-and-a-half times the state sentencing guidelines. 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