Prosecutors say Dwight DeLee fatally shot 22-year-old Lateisha (lah-TEE’-shuh) Green outside a Syracuse house party last November because of anti-gay bias.

Three days of testimony wrapped up Wednesday. Lawyers delivered closing arguments Thursday and the case went to the jury.

If convicted of a hate crime, DeLee would face additional prison time. The judge told jurors they can also consider second-degree murder without the hate crime element, as well as a lesser charge of manslaughter.

If DeLee is convicted, it would be only the second hate crime conviction involving the murder of a transgendered person in the U.S.

However, none of those witnesses could positively say Dwight DeLee was the person who fired the shot that killed 22-year-old Lateisha (lah-TEE’-shuh) Green last November.

Meanwhile, Onondaga County Court Judge William Walsh said authorities were investigating threats made against prosecution witnesses, two of whom on Tuesday recanted prior statements they made to police that they saw DeLee shoot Green.

Walsh said the threatened witnesses “named names” and those names included at least one member of DeLee’s family.

The judge warned that authorities could pursue criminal charges and told DeLee if he is linked to those threats “it will be very, very bad for your defense.”

The developments came as testimony in the three-day trial ended. Attorneys were scheduled to deliver closing arguments Thursday. The case will then go to the jury for deliberations.

Prosecutors say DeLee, 20, fatally shot Green because of anti-gay bias. If convicted of a hate crime, DeLee would face additional prison time.

Erica Allison, 19, who lived at the house, said she heard DeLee refer to Green as a “faggot” moments before Green was shot. However, Allison said she never saw DeLee or anyone else with the gun, which belonged to her brother.

Allison said it was widely known that Green, who was born Moses Cannon, was a male living as a female. The night Green was shot she was wearing jeans and a T-shirt.

David Junious, 17, Allison’s brother, said when the car with Green pulled up to the curb, “everyone started getting real loud. No one wanted them around.” Witnesses testified people at the party had been drinking, some heavily.

Junious said he told DeLee about the gun in the house.

“After I told him about the gun, he said about shooting those faggots,” Junious said. “He went up to the car and then everyone started running around and the car sped off.”

However, Junious also said he did not see DeLee fire the gun, although he did see DeLee carrying the gun back into the house minutes later.

Police recovered the rifle from an upstairs bedroom at the house, where it was stuffed between a bed mattress and box spring.

Another witness, Alyssa Davis, 19, said she heard a dark-skinned black man utter the slur and stick a rifle in the car window but never heard the gun fire. Davis said she didn’t see the gunman’s face, but recognized the voice as DeLee’s and said he was the only dark-skinned male at the house at the time of the shooting.

Other witnesses have testified they heard others use the slur and that the gunman said nothing.

The defense’s lone witness was a DNA expert who testified that a DNA examination of the gun found evidence of three contributors, but none were DeLee.

However, the expert admitted to prosecutors that DNA evidence could have been removed by wiping the gun down or by stuffing it in between the bed mattresses.

As the trial was winding down Wednesday, the U.S. Senate was considering legislation to extend current federal hate crimes protections to gays and other groups. The Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act, named after the gay Wyoming college student murdered in 1998, was proposed as an amendment to a $680 billion bill to approve defense programs.

The bill would expand federal hate crimes – currently defined as those motivated by race, color, national origin or religion – to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

A final vote on the measure wasn’t expected until later in the week. The House passed a similar hate crimes bill in April.

Police originally had identified the victim as Moses Cannon, 20, and gay. Family members, however, now say Cannon went by the name Latiesha Green and was in the process of transitioning.

Latiesha and her brother, Mark Cannon, 18, had been invited to a party and were about to get out of Mark’s car when guests at the party gathered near the car and began yelling homophobic epithets at them.

Syracuse Police Chief Gary Miguel said that one of the guests, Dwight DeLee, went into the residence and returned with a 22-caliber rifle.

Miguel said DeLee then put the rifle to the driver’s side window of that vehicle and fired one round.

The bullet passed through Mark’s arm and struck Latiesha in the chest.

Despite being shot, Mark Cannon was able to drive the car to the family’s home as his sister lay bleeding heavily in the front passenger seat.

She died a short while later.

DeLee appeared in court Monday where he was arraigned on a charge of second degree murder.  No bail was set and DeLee remains in custody.

Miguel said that the shooting was the result of DeLee’s dislike for LGBT people but the Onondaga County District Attorney’s office says it may be difficult to prove.

If a hate crime charge is added to the second degree murder charge DeLee already faces, and he is convicted, he would receive a longer prison sentence.

Police say DeLee has a history of weapons and drug charges.

Monday night, about 70 people attended a candlelight vigil for Latiesha. Mourners wrote their names and brief messages on a memorial mural.

In May, a study found attacks on members of the LGBT community nationwide grew by 24 percent in 2007 over the previous year.

The 78-page report was prepared by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs with input from more than 30 of its members across the U.S.

While a number of states include LGBT people in hate crime laws, federal hate crime law does not include LGBT people.

The Matthew Shepard Hate Crime Act, named for the 21-year-old college student who was murdered in an anti-gay hate crime in Wyoming in October 1998, languishes in Congress.

Moses Cannon, 20, was sitting in a car with his brother Mark, 18, about to enter a party they had been invited to by an acquaintance.

Before they could get out of the vehicle, guests at the party came outside the house and began yelling homophobic epithets at them.

Syracuse Police Chief Gary Miguel said that one of the guests, Dwight DeLee, went into the residence and returned with a 22-caliber rifle.

Miguel said DeLee then put the rifle to the driver’s side window of that vehicle and fired one round.

“And that one round strikes Mark Cannon in the arm, and continues on and strikes Moses Cannon in the chest area,” Miguel told local cable news station News 10.

According to Miguel, DeLee fired at the brothers because Moses Cannon was gay.

“Our suspect took a rifle and shot and killed this person, wounding also his brother, for the sole reason that he didn’t care for the sexual preference of our victim. And isn’t that sad?” Miguel told the station.

Despite being shot, Mark Cannon was able to drive the car to the family’s home as his brother lay bleeding heavily in the front passenger seat.

Moses Cannon died a short while later.

DeLee was arrested on Sunday and charged with second-degree murder. At his arraignment on Monday, he pleaded not guilty. The district attorney’s office said it may add a hate crime charge prior to trial.

“I’m hurt. Angry, upset. Am I mad at the kid? Yes. Mostly, I’m upset with society. How do we let our kids get this angry this young? This was hatred,” Albert Cannon, Moses Cannon’s father told News 10.