UPDATED 4:30 p.m. BLOOMINGTON - Jurors informed the court that they would like to have a question answered late Tuesday afternoon in the rape and stalking trial of former police officer Jeff Pelo. | AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Week 6 recap | Special section

Judge Robert Freitag was waiting for Pelo's attorney, Michael Rosenblat, to return to the courtroom before reading the question and deciding how to instruct the jury.

The jury has been deliberating in the case since Monday afternoon.

They boarded a bus at 9:30 p.m. Monday after about six hours of deliberation and the sequestered jurors returned Tuesday morning to continue deliberations.

The jury will decide if the former sergeant is guilty of raping four women and stalking a fifth between 2002 and 2005.

In closing arguments to the jury on Monday, a prosecutor said Pelo is an evil man who was unable to stop himself from stalking and sexually assaulting women.

Defense lawyer Michael Rosenblat told the jury Pelo is the victim of overzealous police work and unfortunate circumstances.

The panel of six men and six women will determine which portrait of Pelo is most accurate as they deliberate on 35 counts accusing Pelo of aggravated criminal sexual assault, residential burglary, stalking and home invasion. The charges span four years, beginning in 2002, when Pelo allegedly stalked a woman and raped four others in their east side Bloomington homes.

Chief Felony Prosecutor Mark Messman said in a closing argument lasting 75 minutes that he could not offer an explanation for the crimes he believes Pelo committed.

"Evil came into his heart, took up residence there, and he couldn't get rid of it," said Messman.

Messman reviewed the month of testimony the jury heard concerning Pelo's habit of running license plates checks on young women, the former cop's taste for violent pornography and his desire to live the fantasies he viewed in the pornographic images.

"For those minutes or hours he's in there, these women are going to be his girlfriend," Messman said of the alleged attacks by Pelo.

Rosenblat contends that authorities homed in on Pelo as a suspect shortly after he was stopped June 10, 2006, by a police officer outside a woman's home on Andy Court.

"The police wrongfully believed that a sophisticated criminal was involved in these assaults. The police are not willing to admit they made a mistake. They left that up to you," the defense lawyer told the jury.

Pelo's lawyer pointed to the results of DNA tests and fingerprint identifications performed on evidence collected at the crimes scenes.

"All of this evidence points to someone else who committed these crimes," said Rosenblat.

Rosenblat also argued that the physical descriptions of the attacker offered by the women differed in several details, including ages ranging from the 20s to 40s.

Messman pointed to evidence he said proves the 18-year police veteran had the motive, means and opportunity to commit the crimes. Common elements of the assaults, including the sudden appearance of a masked man in the middle of the night who bound his victims and negotiated some of his actions with them, shows that one person was responsible for the assaults, said the prosecutor.

Extra chairs were brought into the courtroom to accommodate the overflow crowd for closing remarks. Two of the alleged rape victims and the woman who was allegedly stalked by Pelo were in the front row for the final arguments.

Jurors arrived at the Law and Justice Center with suitcases in preparation for their sequestration at a hotel at the end of each day's deliberations.