Jurors at the Dequan McKethan murder trial deliberated for about 2½ hours Thursday in New London Superior Court after hearing two versions of the case during closing arguments.

State’s Attorney Lawrence J. Tytla told the jury evidence against accused murderer McKethan, including DNA, ballistics and phone records that appear to link the defendant to the crime, is overwhelming.

McKethan’s attorney, John T. Walkley, argued the evidence, including the police’s seizure of the alleged murder weapon in McKethan’s car, suggests that his client “very well may have been set up.”

“Could he have been stupid enough to put the gun in his car?” Walkley said. “He would not have done that.”

The 12-member jury began deliberating after Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed instructed them on the charges.

McKethan, 37, of Norwich, an aspiring recording artist also known as “Mr. Barlow,” is accused of fatally shooting Darius Bishop, 28, of Norwich at the Charles Long Sports Complex in Bozrah on Sept. 25, 2012.

He is charged with murder, possession of cocaine and carrying a pistol without a permit.

The victim’s father, Kenneth Bishop, who has watched most of the trial, was present in court when the prosecutor admitted to the jury that some questions about Bishop’s death will never be answered.

“I can’t tell you exactly why Darius Bishop had his sneakers off,” Tytla said. “I can’t tell you why he had his driver’s license in his outstretched hand. Common sense tells you he was taken there to be executed, and that’s exactly what happened.”

Bishop was lying face down near a dugout when a woman who was en route to work saw his body and called 911.

Detectives found a pool of blood beneath his head and a spent shell casing from a small-caliber semi-automatic pistol nearby.

Photos of the crime scene make it appear Bishop was kneeling down, shot at close range, and left to bleed to death, Tytla said.

He suggested that even though McKethan did not confess to the killing during a videotaped interrogation with detectives, he told several lies that demonstrated his guilt.

Forensic examiners had testified that McKethan’s DNA was on the trigger and ammunition clip that was inside a .22-caliber Beretta pistol found beneath the driver’s seat of McKethan’s Nissan Maxima when a Norwich police officer pulled him over two days after the shooting.

Testing of the spent shell casing found at the homicide scene confirmed it had been shot from the pistol, though the examiner said she could not confirm that the bullet fragment removed from Bishop’s head during an autopsy came from the gun.

Phone records revealed the two men had exchanged six phone calls in the hours before the shooting, and the state contends that analysis of the phones’ movements throughout the night indicates the two men were together between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., when a neighbor of the Bozrah sports field heard what he said sounded like a branch snapping or gunfire from a small-caliber weapon.

Walkley reminded the jury that McKethan’s DNA was not found on Bishop’s driver’s license or other parts of the gun, including the slide.

He said the floor of McKethan’s car was dirty, and suggested DNA from another item could have transferred onto the gun.

He interpreted the phone records differently, saying they suggest the two men were not together for most of the night, and that the phones appeared to be moving in different directions after the time the state asserts that Bishop was killed.

He said, also, that the records showed Bishop had two contacts with an unidentified phone number prior to his estimated time of death.

According to testimony, Bishop’s phone accessed a tower in Norwich from 2:41 to 2:45 a.m., and that was the last activity seen on the phone, which was never recovered by police.

In taking his case to trial, McKethan turned down an offer from the state to plead guilty in exchange for a 40-year prison sentence. He could be sentenced to more than 60 years in prison if convicted.

k.florin@theday.com

Twitter: @KFLORIN