UPDATE -- After nearly 12 hours of deliberation, a jury found Nachtman guilty of two first-degree murder charges. A judge sentenced her to life in prison just after the verdict.
TAMPA, Fla. – Closing arguments began Friday in the case against a former Florida State University student charged with murder.
Nicole Nachtman is accused of shooting and killing her mother and stepfather in 2015.
During the trial, Nachtman's lawyers didn't fight whether she did it, but rather argued two defenses on why he shouldn't spend the rest of her life in jail.
The first defense was insanity. The second was battered child syndrome— asserting this was a girl lashing out at her parents after years of abuse.
"For the record here, she is consenting to the killing of her parents but in no way consenting or admitting that she -- that these were premeditated," said her defense to the judge before jury selection.
"I have never heard of the battered child syndrome," said Jeffrey Swartz, our ABC Action News Legal Analyst.
When asked if he thought the defense would stick he said, "It may not stick as an absolute defense but do I think a jury could find that in fact there were effects of it that affected her ability to think through premeditation. That could happen."
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