Sandusky's attorney expects him to be convicted on some counts

Jurors reheard testimony from two witnesses on their second day of deliberations in Jerry Sandusky's trial. NBC News' John Yang reports from Bellefonte, Pa.

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com, and Kimberly Kaplan, NBC News

Updated at 7:04 p.m. ET: BELLEFONTE, Pa. ? Jerry Sandusky's attorney said Friday that he expects his client to be convicted on some of the 48 child sexual abuse counts against him.

Kimberly Kaplan of NBC News reported from Bellefonte, Pa. M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

"I would die of a heart attack ? shocked ? if he was acquitted on all of the charges," Joseph Amendola, the head of Sandusky's defense team, told reporters in Centre County Court.

"It is just statistically unlikely," he said.

Jurors were into their 17th hour of deliberations in the trial of Sandusky, 68, the former defensive coordinator for Penn State University's storied football team and founder of the Second Mile charity for troubled children. He denies all 48 counts in two grand jury reports alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years.

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Amendola spoke to reporters for a few minutes inside the courthouse before a court official cut him off. Judge John Cleland has issued a gag order prohibiting participants from making public statements "regarding the Defendant's guilt or innocence" (.pdf).

Before he was hustled away, Amendola acknowledged that "it's a daunting, daunting case," but he said Sandusky has "always been optimistic."?

There was still no indication when the jurors might reach a verdict. They were expected to work through dinner, just as they had Thursday night.

Earlier Friday, the jury asked Cleland for clarification on hearsay and circumstantial evidence, an indication that they were wrestling with secondhand testimony about an incident in which Sandusky was allegedly seen in a Penn State University shower with a young boy.

The question involved the testimony of Ronald Petrosky, a janitor at Penn State, who said that he saw "two pairs of legs" in the shower in November 2005. He said he discussed the incident with a colleague, Jim Calhoun, who told him that he had seen Sandusky performing oral sex on the boy, who is identified in a grand jury report as "Victim 8."

Calhoun is hospitalized with dementia and didn't testify. Cleland allowed Petrosky's secondhand testimony under an exception to rules barring hearsay evidence.

Cleland instructed the jurors that "the statement of Mr. Calhoun as related to you by Mr. Petrosky is not sufficient standing alone to sustain a conviction."

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"You must be satisfied that there is other evidence that supports that a crime had been committed besides Mr. Calhoun's hearsay statement," he stressed.

Thursday night, jurors told Cleland that they wanted to rehear the testimony of former Penn State assistant coach Michael McQueary, who testified that he overheard and saw Sandusky apparently having sex with a young boy in a football locker room shower, and Jonathan Dranov, a family friend who testified that McQueary told him about incident. Both men's testimony was re-enacted Friday morning.

McQueary testified last week that he saw a young boy ? identified in the first grand jury report as "Victim 2" ? in a Penn State shower with his hands against the wall and Sandusky standing up against him from behind. He said he heard a "skin-on-skin smacking sound" and that he had "no doubt" that Sandusky was engaging in anal sex with the boy.

Testifying for the defense this week, Dranov said McQueary described hearing sounds he considered sexual in nature but didn't give a graphic description of what he saw.

"I kept saying, 'What did you see?'" Dranov testified. "Each time, he would come back to the sounds. It just seemed to make him more upset, so I backed off that."

The lead defense attorney, Joseph Amendola, argued in his closing statements Thursday that McQueary "assumed" sex was occurring without having actually seen any.

And he contended that Dranov must not have believed that the incident was as serious as he later said because he didn't report it to police. As a physician, Dranov is required by law to report any indication of child abuse.

The jury of seven women and five men is being sequestered during deliberations without access to computers, phones or any other way to hear news coverage of the trial. That means they wouldn't have heard that Sandusky's adopted son Matt said that he had been prepared to testify that he, too, was a victim of abuse by his father, according to a statement issued by attorneys who said they are representing the younger Sandusky.

(NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Matt Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)

Sources told NBC News that Jerry Sandusky abandoned plans to testify in his own defense because of the prospect of damaging rebuttal testimony by his son.

Matt Sandusky: From stalwart defender to possibly his father's most damning accuser

Travis Weaver, who alleges that he was abused by former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, tells NBC Bews' Kate Snow, "I'll be OK when he's in prison."

Nor would they have heard the account of Travis Weaver, 30, of Ohio, who attended Second Mile camps as a youth. Weaver told NBC News in an interview that aired Thursday night that Sandusky performed oral sex on him in the upstairs bedroom of the Sanduskys' home.

Weaver testified to one of the two grand juries but wasn't mentioned in the grand jury reports or called as a witness during the trial.

Several of the counts are so-called mandated felonies, meaning Cleland would have no discretion in sentencing. Most carry sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison, meaning that even if he is convicted on only a handful of those counts, Sandusky could spend the rest of his life in prison.

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