UTICA - A 24-year-old man accused of ambushing a Utica police officer should not be convicted of murder based on “speculation, sympathy and pity,” a defense lawyer said Wednesday.

Defense attorney Rebecca Wittman told an Oneida County Court jury that prosecutors had a weak case against Wesley Molina-Cirino, 24, and were trying to make him a “sacrificial lamb ... to avenge the execution” of Utica Police Officer Thomas Lindsey.

Molina-Cirino, of Utica, faces up to life in prison if convicted of aggravated murder in Lindsey's slaying. The jury began its deliberations early Wednesday afternoon after getting legal instructions from Judge Barry Donalty. The jury retired after four hours of deliberation and will resume on Thursday.

Lindsey, a 32-year-old former Marine and six-year veteran policeman, was killed by an assailant who came up from behind him and shot him in the head during a traffic stop in April.

The biggest hole in the prosecution's case against Molina-Cirino is its single eyewitness, Sammy Rivera, the driver of the car Lindsey stopped, Wittman said during her closing arguments.

“And without Sammy Rivera's testimony, there is no story,” Wittman said. “Sammy Rivera: Driver, or not? Telling you the truth, the whole truth? Or not?”

Assistant District Attorney Laurie Lisi told jurors that Lindsey was “assassinated.”

“He was killed by a coward who snuck up behind him in the dark of night,” Lisi said during her recap. “He was killed while doing what he loved best: Being a cop, serving the community, protecting the community.”

Lisi said the defense had focused primarily Rivera's testimony during the trial and in closing arguments. “He is our most crucial witness. But the case does not rise and it does not fall on the testimony of Sammy Rivera alone,” she said.

Lisi also noted that Rivera's version of events has remained consistent from the moment Lindsey was killed to the time he testified in court.

Rivera identified Molina-Cirino from the witness stand as the white-hooded man who shot Lindsey.

Rivera told jurors that Molina-Cirino did not like Lindsey because the officer had arrested him twice and continually harassed him.

During the six-day trial, Wittman tried to discredit Rivera's account and show that the shooting was carried out by Rivera, Jose Cirino, Molina-Cirino's cousin, and another man.