Timothy Evans

A sequestered jury will resume deliberations this afternoon in the case of two young men accused of carrying out a gang retaliation killing.

Timothy “Timbo” Evans, 19, confessed on the witness stand Thursday to killing Adrian Patton, telling jurors he had just landed a job at McDonald’s before shooting the man he did not know later that day.

But it was his co-defendant, Michael “Mike Mike” Daniels, 22, who told him to do it, Mr. Evans testified. Five seconds after the order, Mr. Evans said, he realized he had just “emptied his clip” into the driver’s side door of Mr. Patton’s truck on East 48th Street in the Emma Wheeler Homes development.

“I wasn’t even holding the gun right,” said Mr. Evans, who was 17 at the time. “I just turned my head sideways and kept shooting.”

Adrian Patton’s death from six gunshot wounds on June 13, 2006 — allegedly orchestrated by Skyline Bloods leader Mr. Daniels because of the belief the victim had fired shots at his sister’s house — quickly became a high-profile example of Chattanooga’s perceived gang problem.

Mr. Evans, tall and lanky with his hair braided in cornrows, said the events of that day still haunt him.

“My conscience was eating at me, because I had realized I killed a man for no reason,” he said.

Yet, on cross-examination, Mr. Evans said he would have killed Hamilton County Judge Rebecca Stern, the prosecutors and even his own defense attorney John McDougal if “Mike Mike” had told him to do so.

The jury deliberated almost two hours Thursday and resumed deliberations at 9 a.m. today. The jury broke for lunch and will resume deliberations at 1:30 p.m.

With that allegiance now obliterated by the reality of their circumstances, Mr. Daniels and Mr. Evans both face charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and unlawfully possessing a firearm. If convicted, each could receive life sentences with the possibility of parole after serving at least

Two years after the crime, the trial this week became a minicourse in gang culture during which Mr. Evans said his subordinate position within the Skyline Bloods had forced him to take orders from Mr. Daniels or suffer the consequences.

“I had no choice,” Mr. Evans said of the killing. “It’s either follow his orders or get violated.”

Christina Young, a gang investigator at the Silverdale Detention Center, testified earlier in the week that getting “violated” for not following a gang leader’s orders often means a physical assault or even death.

Mr. Daniels, who could be acquitted or convicted of a much lesser charge if the jury doesn’t believe he commanded his co-defendant to pull the trigger, chose not to testify.

He instead relied on defense attorney Jesse Dalton to pick apart Mr. Evans’ story.

Mr. Dalton resurrected old police statements in which Mr. Evans at first had pegged Mr. Daniels as the killer.

Then Mr. Evans admitted to the jury that he never has been scared of his co-defendant.

“Duress as a defense doesn’t work when he’s not scared of that man,” Mr. Dalton told the jury in his closing arguments.

Meanwhile, family members who said Mr. Patton’s death “destroyed the community” in South Chattanooga wait for a verdict.

“I’m glad it’s coming to an end,” said Mr. Patton’s mother, Donna Sails.

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