RALEIGH - A Wake jury began meeting late this morning behind closed doors to decide whether Jakiem Wilson plotted to kill his wife. Nneka, who was stabbed to death in their Wendell-area home in February 2007. The jury adjourned this afternoon without a verdict.

The jurors will wrestle over whether Wilson, 24, committed first-degree murder, which hinges on premeditation, or the lesser charge of second-degree murder for which his attorneys have argued, saying that he killed his wife in a fit of sudden rage.

First-degree murder carries a punishment of life in prison or a death, while second-degree murder carries a prison term that could allow Wilson to one day walk out of prison.

Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Davis said in her closing argument that the evidence didn't support a defense expert witness' opinion that Jakiem Wilson couldn't control his anger because of a history of sexual and physical abuse as well as his own alcohol and drug use.

"Dysfunctional thinking?," Davis said. "No. He knew exactly what he was going to do."

Wilson's defense attorneys are not asking jurors to consider a not guilty verdict, having already admitted that Wilson stabbed his wife to death.

"We are not saying anything to excuse Jakiem's behavior and what he did," said Hoyt Tessener, one of Wilson's defense attorneys. "There's no excuse for that."

Nneka (Sutton) Wilson married Jakiem in March 2004, a few months after the two met and she became pregnant with their son Matthias, who will turn 4 tomorrow. The couple, according to court testimony, had a rocky relationship; she worked full-time while he spent his days hanging out with friends and creating a gang of four people who created music at the couple's home. Wilson did get a job about a week before his wife's death.

On Feb. 12, 2007, Wilson called two of his fellow gang members, Jamie Holder and Roderick Howell, and said he wanted to kill his wife by attacking her as she exited the shower, the two testified. A little while later, he called again and said he had killed her and was on his way to pick them up so they could help him stage the scene to look like a gang killing, they testified.

The trio cleaned up much of the blood spattered around the house, and Wilson told Holder to write "Your (expletive) is dead Fu, you're next," with a rag that had been dipped in Nneka Wilson's blood. Fu is Wilson's nickname, which he earned as a child because he enjoyed watching Kung fu movies, his sister testified.

A sobbing Jakiem Wilson called an emergency dispatcher the next day and said he had arrived home from spending the night at Selma to find his wife's naked body in the kitchen in a pool of her blood. Sheriff's investigators, after speaking with Howell and Holder, arrested Wilson by the end of the day and charged him with killing her.

Much of the evidence collected from the couple's home at 6637 Eagles Crossing Drive outside of Wendell was not allowed in court after Superior Court Judge Henry W. Hight Jr. ruled that sheriff's investigators did not have enough probable cause to search the residence.

Jurors are expected to return a verdict today. If they do convict Wilson of first-degree murder, a second phase of the trial will begin where they'll have to decide whether or not he should be sentenced to death.

Executions have been on hold in North Carolina after legal objections were raised in several cases. It's not clear when, or if, they will resume.