Defense and prosecution portrays two very different shades of Keith Foster in trial

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Was he a deputy police chief so tied into the community he had informants on both sides of the law? Or a cop who lived a different life once he removed his badge?

Jurors will now try to decide which of those descriptions is the real Keith Foster.

Prosecutors said Foster spent a substantial part of his life in the public eye. But in his private life, things were completely different once he took off his police uniform.

Once again, attorneys played wiretaps of Foster talking in code - arranging the very best "China White," or heroin, and the marijuana deal he was discussing with his nephew.

Prosecutors reminded jurors that for four months in a row, Foster picked up an Oxycodone prescription at a Rite Aid for 100 pills that he says was for his on-again-off-again gout problem.

"The last time leaving, after having 100 pills of Oxycontin, only having two on him and having 98 at the place he just left and $1,300 in cash. That's strong circumstantial evidence," legal analyst Tony Capozzi explained. "It's pretty much devastating."

Defense Attorney Marshall Hodgkins said his client was so successful and admired by peers and the community that he would have no reason to start dealing drugs.

He said, "Keith is guilty of trying to help Rafael Guzman and Denny Foster." For hours Thursday, Hodgkins tried to humanize Foster, describing him as the best at getting tips and information - even from those who didn't always walk a straight line.

He told jurors about the instruction "if you believe the character is not someone that would commit these crimes, the jury can find reasonable doubt and declare him not guilty."

"What the government is trying to show, one theory that he's guilty of these conspiracies," he argued. "The defense, on the other hand, is saying 'here's an alternative theory.' And if you can believe one of the two, you're not sure which one, you must find him not guilty. I think the evidence is very strong here, that's the government's theory."

Foster and Hodgkins said they poured through 52,000 pages of discovery. The defense wants jurors to believe Foster was a crime fighter 24-hours a day, who wasn't afraid to talk to criminals for information and was just doing his job as a police officer - all despite his own voice in recordings prosecutors say are clear drug deals.