CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- The defense has rested it's case in the trial of an Aurora man charged with fatal child abuse.

Aaron Thompson is charged with 60 criminal counts in the disappearance of his daughter, Aarone. The defense wrapped up Wednesday afternoon. Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday with the jury beginning its deliberations on Monday.

For a time, it appeared that Thompson would take the stand in his own defense. Thompson asked the judge for time to consider testifying, but eventually declined.

The defense spent Wednesday trying to cast doubt about two statements Thompson allegedly made while in jail this year:

“Sometimes you just snap and deal with the consequences.”

“It’s easy to hide a body. You just have to bury it deep enough.”

After 21 days of testimony from prosecution witnesses, an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Department staffer took the stand at 8:45 a.m.

Nancy Sibak is the housing administrator at the jail, just across the parking lot from the Arapahoe County Justice center where the trial is under way.

Sibak identified when convict Jessie Reynolds and Thompson could have been near each other.

Reynolds was one of the big surprise witnesses in the prosecution’s parade of adults, children, neighbors, teachers and nuns.

He told the jury that in January of this year, he was watching TV with a bunch of other inmates at the jail. Reynolds said one of the inmates was Thompson.

A story on a cable news show centered on a missing Florida girl, Caylee Anthony. The girl’s body was found in a trash bag near the home and her mother is suspected of involvement in her death.

Reynolds said there was talk about how a parent could allegedly do something like that.

At that point, Reynolds testified he heard someone say, “Sometimes you just snap and deal with the consequences.”

He said he also heard Thompson say, “It’s easy to hide a body, you just have to bury it deep enough.”

Today, defense attorney James Karbach was able to raise new questions about the convict’s testimony.

Deputy Matt Miller Wednesday told the jury he is the jailer Reynolds first talked to on Jan. 13, 2009, but he did not recall Reynolds saying he heard Thompson utter the “snap” comment.

He also told the jury that while he typed up some notes for himself, believing he would be called to testify some day, he did not write a formal report on the discussion with Reynolds, as he normally would do in a high-profile case.

He was asked by defense attorney Karbach why he didn’t print up his own notes and give those to a supervisor.

“I didn’t think about it,” Miller said.

Miller told the jury that he asked Reynolds to write a witness statement.

He said Reynolds did so, writing a one page, handwritten statement that has now been lost.

Deputy Stefan Gallegos is the intelligence officer within the jail, charged with passing on information that may aid law enforcement or protect inmates.

Gallegos said he did write a report about his conversation with Deputy Miller, but also did not recall Reynolds’ statement about Thompson allegedly saying, “Sometimes you just snap.”

Under cross-examination, prosecutor Bob Chappell asked deputy Miller if he was aware that the sheriff’s department had been “looking high and low” for the written statement from Reynolds over the past couple of days.

Miller said he was.

Reynolds also came back to court Wednesday.

Since testifying Aug. 19, he has been involuntarily placed in solitary confinement by the Department of Corrections, Reynolds said, due to media coverage.

While he told the jury last month he was testifying in the Thompson trial simply because he was offended by the statements, he also wrote a letter that same day to prosecutor Chappell, asking for money.

“There’s no way I will survive mentally, without something to alleviate the boredom,” Reynolds wrote in a letter while asking if he might be eligible for a Crimestoppers reward of $800 for his testimony against Thompson. “I had a radio but that was stolen once they found out I was a snitch.”

Reynolds told the jury he wanted to buy a TV and a radio for the cell he now occupies 23 hours a day.

“People’s minds start to play with them … You get stupid ideas when you’re in a place like that,” Reynolds said.