The defense attorneys for two Aurora police officers charged in Elijah McClain’s 2019 death chose not to call any witnesses at all, setting the stage for the jury to begin deliberating early next week.

The decision came Friday after Judge Mark Warner indicated he would likely instruct jurors not to consider whether the officers had reasonable suspicion to stop McClain, an issue the prosecutors said they chose not to hinge their case on. Though Officer Randy Roedema’s defense attorneys previously said they planned to have an expert in use of force take the stand, the defense for both officers suggested Friday they would not need to call any witnesses if Warner said he would make that instruction.

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Roedema and former officer Jason Rosenblatt each face charges of assault, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in McClain’s death. The case accuses them of stopping him the night of Aug. 24, 2019 as McClain walked home from a convenience store. They took him to the ground and handcuffed him, and at some point during the struggle Officer Nathan Woodyard is accused of putting a type of neck on McClain that caused him to temporarily lose consciousness.

Roedema and Rosenblatt are accused of not calling in medical care for McClain when he repeatedly cried out he could not breathe after they subdued and handcuffed him. Woodyard, who grabbed McClain first, faces trial in a separate case scheduled to start later this month.

The three officers had responded to a 911 call by someone who saw McClain wearing a black mask and waving his arms, believing he was acting suspiciously. However, McClain was not suspected of a crime.

A paramedic who came to the scene injected McClain with the sedative ketamine. He stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest, and McClain died in a hospital a few days later.

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The defense attorneys for Roedema and Rosenblatt do not believe the attorney general’s office has met its burden of proof. Earlier on Friday, they requested Warner make a judgment of acquittal for the officers, arguing prosecutors had not linked specific actions by the officers to McClain’s death or injuries they allege. They also argued the attorney general’s office hasn’t proven the officers were complicit in the accused criminal actions of the other officer and two paramedics charged.

Lucas Lorenz, an attorney for Roedema, said he believes prosecutors have relied on their theory that the officers’ actions and McClain’s injuries happened as one “continuous offense” to hide their case’s weakness.

“That gets them all of the salacious alleged facts, but at the end of the day it’s a red herring,” he said.

However, Warner quickly denied the motion. He said the jury can “connect the dots” to decide which actions by Rosenblatt and Roedema caused, or did not cause, the harm to McClain alleged by prosecutors.

“There is substantial and sufficient evidence for a reasonable mind to conclude the defendants committed the crimes charged,” Warner said.

Prosecutors rested their Friday morning after they finished questioning their last witness. Roger Mitchell, a forensic pathologist, provided the most definitive opinion among all the prosecutors’ medical experts that the officers’ actions contributed to McClain’s death. He said McClain as McClain struggled to breathe, acid built up in his blood and he threw up repeatedly, inhaling it into his lungs and essentially drowning in his own vomit over the course of the 18-minute encounter.

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The jurors will return Tuesday morning for closing arguments and jury instructions from Warner, which is the set of guidelines about the legal standards and principles they have to apply when deciding their verdict.