The jury in the William Smithson murder trial should have the case by later this afternoon to start their deliberations.

The defense rested its case this morning after putting on several character witnesses and an admitted long-time drug addict who claimed Fen Bruce Covington sexually assaulted him by slipping him a date-rape drug during one of their meetings at Covington's Narberth apartment.

According to the man, an unemployed 27-year-old, he met Covington on a gay chat line back in the fall of 2006. The two got together later that day to take drugs and have sex.

He testified that the two of them would get together approximately once month at Covington's apartment and occasionally with other men at other homes.

The man who described himself as a "responsible drug addict," said he became increasingly concerned about Covington and his behavior and his sexual fantasies, which included using the drug GHB to knock someone unconscious and have "anal sex with them without their knowledge."

He said in February 2008, he was at Covington's apartment when he started "nodding out." This was after he'd been voluntarily injected with "crystal meth," a drug that would normally speed someone up.

"When I came to," he testified, "I had additional injection sites on my body." He also said "I had been penetrated anally."

Under cross examination, the man said he has been a meth addict for 15 years, which means his addiction started when he was 12-years-old.

He claimed the injections Covington gave him while he was unconscious landed him in a psychiatric hospital.

When Prosecutor Tom Lawrie ask the witness, "You reported this incident to the police, didn't you," Defense attorney Guy Smith objected.

During a sidebar with the judge and attorneys, Smithson appeared to be wiping tears from his eyes with a white handkerchief while witness remained on the stand.

The defense has consistently attempted implicate Covington, who was in the Smithson home when Jason Shephard was killed, as Shephard's killer.

Covington in statement to police said he never saw or met Shephard that night and was asleep in the basement when Smithson and Shephard came back to the house.

Outside the jury's presence Covington cited his 5th Amendment rights in declining to testify about anything he did at Smithson house that night.

On agreement of both the prosecution and the defense, a statement was read to the jury that said Covington faced criminal charges in connection to this case and had invoked his 5th Amendment rights so would not be available to testify.

Closing arguments will begin this afternoon. After instructions from Judge Barry Dozor it will be in the jury's hands.

UPDATE NOTE: I have removed the name of the 27-year-old witness at the request of my editor and due to his claims of being a sexual assault victim. Typically, we do not print such names in the paper so we decided it should be removed from the posting.