No ruling will be issued for at least two weeks after arguments concluded in a hearing into the Jason Carter civil case in Knoxville.

Judge Martha Mertz closed the hearing on Wednesday by asking both sides to submit further briefs by December 26th; she says she needs more information before she can rule on whether or not to vacate or retry the civil case against Carter, who was found liable for the shooting death of his mother Shirley Carter and faces a criminal trial in the matter in March.

The defense says evidence which they did not receive prior to the civil case against him would have been a game-changer. Defense attorney Alison Kanne introduced an old family photo which shows Jason Carter assembling a gun safe about 15 years ago; it could explain the presence of his fingerprints on it — a matter brought up in the civil case.

His father Bill Carter is the main plaintiff in the case, and confirmed the photo during testimony on Wednesday.

She also notes the names of several potential suspects included in various investigators’ reports, and his father’s description of her already going into rigor mortis, as elements which could have altered the verdict.

But plaintiff’s attorney Mark Weinhardt says none of this is enough to justify setting aside the jury’s verdict; he directly quoted the movie “Casablanca” while alluding to the defense bringing up several people with drug or legal problems mentioned in the reports…saying they were essentially asking police to “round up the usual suspects.”

He also says Carter appeared to know things about the case which only the killer would have known; Weinhardt openly said in court that Jason Carter was the killer, and that the civil jury made the right decision.