COEUR d'ALENE - Closing arguments and jury deliberations are scheduled for Thursday morning in the Rathdrum Mountain wolf-shooter case.

Forrest Mize, who lives on the mountain, is charged with a misdemeanor count of possessing a wolf without a tag.

Kootenai County prosecutors and Mize's defense lawyer, Michael Palmer, got bogged down late Tuesday as they tried to agree on a set of jury instructions. That process prevented the trial from concluding in its first day.

Three Idaho Department of Fish and Game employees were the prosecution's only witnesses. Mize didn't take the stand in his defense.

"He isn't a wolf hunter," Palmer told the jury during opening statements. So his client didn't have a tag when he used a rifle to shoot the wolf on Dec. 30.

Palmer said Mize initially believed the wolf was a coyote when he pulled the trigger. He believed his three dogs were about to be attacked by the wolf while they were on a walk in the snow along a logging road.

Mize sought to keep the pelt, taking the animal to a taxidermist.

The jury consists of three men and three women, and at least half said during the jury selection process that they are hunters.

While the jury was excused for some legal arguments, Palmer told Magistrate Judge Anna Eckhart that, according to his reading of state law, a person doesn't need a wolf tag to shoot a wolf to protect domestic animals.

"He didn't have a requirement to have a tag," Palmer said.

Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Tony Clinger argued that Mize didn't start out by reporting to Fish and Game that he killed a wolf to protect his dogs.

Instead, Mize both went out and bought a wolf tag and took the animal to a taxidermist so he could keep the pelt.

Clinger argued the kill wasn't the issue.

Eckhart agreed.

"It's what happened afterward," Eckhart said.