JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After seven days of testimony and a almost a full day of closing arguments, it took a jury less than three hours to find Tyrone Hartsfield guilty of attempted murder in the shooting of Jaguars player Richard Collier.

Collier survived being shot six times, but remains paralyzed from the waist down, and his left leg was amputated.

Prosecutors said Hartsfield could face from 25 years to life in prison.

"This wasn't a robbery. This wasn't some random victim that was unfortunately picked. No, this victim was targeted by one man only -- this man right here," Assistant State Attorney Bernie de la Rionda said as he pointed toward Hartsfield during closing arguments Thursday morning. "He had a motive and seized the opportunity."

Defense attorney Ann Finnell then addressed the jury, saying the state does not have a single shred of evidence that Hartsfield shot Collier and said police desperate to make an arrest in the case used a convicted felon to make a secret recording of Hartsfield.

"There's something terribly wrong with this case. The prosecution here has cut a deal with the devil," Finnell said. "The only just verdict is not guilty because the state has failed to prove their case beyond a reasonable and to the exclusion of reasonable doubt."

Collier was in the courtroom Thursday for the first time since he testified last week.

Out of earshot of the jury, Judge Mallory Cooper denied a defense request that instructions would include information about circumstantial evidence. After extensive jury instructions, they went out at 3:38 p.m. to begin deliberations.

Defendant Takes The Stand

On Wednesday, Hartsfield took the stand in his own defense and cried as he said, "I would never do nothing like that to nobody."

Hartsfield testified that his fiancée drove him home from a San Marco nightclub and a concert the night of Sept. 2 and he was not outside the Riverside apartment when Collier was shot.

"I wanted to tell him so bad when he came in (to testify), 'I didn't do this,'" Hartsfield testified about when Collier testified for the prosecution last week.

Hartsfield cried several times during about three hours on the stand. He contradicted most of the testimony from the state's key witness, Stephan Wilson, a convicted bank robber.

Wilson testified last week and again on Tuesday that he was in the car with Hartsfield and saw him get out in Riverside, heard gunfire, and he returned to the car to say, "I finally got him."

Wilson agreed to wear a hidden microphone to record a long, expletive-laced conversation in which Hartsfield is heard saying: "The only thing they got on me is you."

On Tuesday, the defense team attacked Wilson's credibility, saying he was on federal probation and who would do anything to keep from going back to prison.

On the stand Wednesday, Hartsfield said he felt Wilson and other of his friends lied to police about his involvement with Collier's shooting so they could collect a reward offered in the case.

"I hope that guy ain't went down there (the police station) lied on me because I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt," Hartsfield testified about Wilson.

Prosecutors allege that Hartsfield shot Collier out of revenge because the football player had knocked him unconscious during an encounter in a different bar five months before the shooting.

On the stand, Hartsfield denied wanting revenge.

"I've got nothing to do with it. I'm not that kind of person," Hartsfield testified. "The person that did this crime, ya'll need to find him, because it wasn't me. Ya'll need to find him."

When it came time for the state's cross-examination, de la Rionda implied Hartsfield's tears were part of his plan to convince the jury he is innocent.

"Do you want to do any more crying before we get started?" de la Rionda asked. "No sir," Hartsfield replied.

After Hartsfield stepped down, his defense team called several witnesses attempting to discredit Wilson and questioning the phone records and information on the audio recording he made.