PURVIS — A Lamar County Circuit Court jury could begin deliberating as early as today on whether Jennifer Wardle is guilty of murder in the death of her former boyfriend.

The state rested its case against Wardle, 29, of Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon, and depending on how many more witnesses her lawyers intend to put on the stand, the case could go to the jury at some point today.

Wardle was indicted for murder in October 2007 in the death of James Neal May. A Vicksburg native and University of Southern Mississippi senior, the 22-year-old May was found shot once in the head on May 1, 2002, at his mobile home on West 4th Street.

May had been scheduled to make a trip to Honduras that summer as part of his degree program in geographical information systems and was on track to graduate in December 2002.

Wardle, with whom he began a relationship in early 2001, was nine months pregnant when May died, and she gave birth a few weeks later.

His death was initially ruled a suicide, but at the behest of his family, the state attorney general reviewed the case and eventually charged Wardle with murder.

Wardle had her own apartment, but also spent time at May’s trailer. Tuesday, witnesses testified that the two had argued after she confronted May about his whereabouts and whether he had been unfaithful to her. Witnesses also testified May told her he had rekindled a relationship with an old girlfriend, would support the child, but wanted to end the relationship.

The state called its final four witnesses Wednesday, and after resting its case, John Colette, one of Wardle’s attorneys, asked Judge R.I. Prichard III to render a directed verdict in favor of his client. Colette argued the state had not provided compelling enough evidence to overturn the original suicide ruling.

“It’s got to be proof, your honor,” Colette said. “The state did not make its case. It’s absolute speculation. There are too many dominoes missing, as we say. What we do have is an autopsy that says it was suicide, and you don’t have sufficient evidence to refute that.”

Prichard denied the request.

Among the state’s witnesses were a pair of pathologists and a ballistics expert with the Mississippi Crime Lab, who offered conflicting versions of what soot stains on May’s hands meant.

Dr. Paul McGarry, who had done the original autopsy on May, stood by his ruling that his death came from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Lamar County investigators recovered a Ruger 9 mm semiautomatic pistol next to May’s head shortly after 5 a.m. on May 1. May had been shot once in the center-right rear of the skull, with the bullet traveling upward and slightly right, exiting through the upper right forehead.

McGarry said the soot on May’s hands was consistent with someone holding the gun upside down, with the right hand gripping the barrel tightly against the scalp and the left hand holding the gun’s butt and pulling the trigger.

“This tells me that both hands were involved in maintaining this position while the gun was fired,” McGarry said.

On cross examination, McGarry told Stanley Alexander, special assistant attorney general, that the entry wound also did not support the theory of a second-party shooting.

“It does not have the features of a wound where another person would do the shooting,” McGarry said.

But that wasn’t the conclusion drawn by Dr. Stephen Hayne, who testified that he was “unable to come to the conclusion that (May) could have residue on both hands from that gun.”

Hayne said the stains could be more consistent with someone feeling a gun at the back of the head and reaching backward with their hands.

“That fits the gunshot wound,” said Hayne, saying the wound also resembled a “coup de grâce,” a finishing shot to the back of the head.

Earlier, Steve Byrd, a ballistics expert with the Mississippi Crime Lab, said the soot stains were inconsistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The defense brought three witnesses to the stand, including recalling McGarry, who refuted Hayne’s theory of a possible shooter and said his conclusion now was the same that he had reached nearly eight years ago: suicide.

The defense also called Corrine Meredith, who lived in May’s trailer park and knew Wardle from high school, as well as the defendant’s mother, Tammy Lee Wardle.

Both women testified that Wardle and May seemed to be happy being together. Meredith said that she had seen the couple argue at times, but that the two spent a lot of time together.

“They had a good relationship,” Meredith said.

Both women said Jennifer Wardle was hysterical after May’s death. Meredith came from her trailer that morning to find Wardle at the side of May’s bed.

“She was crying, in shock, in disbelief,” Meredith said. “She was hysterical.”

She said the two did CPR on May until Lamar County law enforcement arrived.

“His eyes turned toward me when I walked in the room and he swallowed once, but he never said a word, and you could tell he wasn’t going to make it,” Meredith said.

Tim Doherty writes for The Hattiesburg American