Barry Bonds' defense attorneys rest without calling one witness

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds' trial will go to the jury Thursday without his defense having called a single witness or putting him on the stand.

That's an indication of how strongly his lawyers feel about their case, but it also highlights another fact: They couldn't find anybody to discredit Kathy Hoskins.

The testimony by Bonds' former personal shopper that she saw trainer Greg Anderson inject him in the navel remains the government's best chance to convict Bonds, said University of San Francisco law professor Robert Talbot.

• BONDS TRIAL: One perjury count dropped vs. former Giant

The defense rested Wednesday after prosecutors dropped a charge that Bonds lied under oath when he told a grand jury in 2003 that Anderson had never given him any performance-enhancing substances before that year. Bonds testified then that he used the steroids known as "the cream" and "the clear" during the 2003 season but said he thought they were arthritis balm and flaxseed oil.

Talbot said prosecutors would have a hard time getting a conviction on two of the three remaining perjury counts — related to Bonds' denials that he knowingly received steroids and human growth hormone from Anderson — or the more general obstruction-of-justice charge.

But Talbot said they had a fairly decent chance of getting a guilty verdict on the charge that Bonds lied when he told the grand jury that neither Anderson nor anybody else but doctors had ever injected him.

"Kathy Hoskins was a very reluctant witness, and the cross-examination didn't do much to hurt her credibility," Talbot said.

Both sides will present their closing arguments today, and the jury may begin deliberations in the afternoon. A verdict could be rendered by Friday.

Wednesday's proceedings were mostly limited to prosecutors dropping the one perjury count and Judge Susan Illston ruling on a handful of motions.

She denied the defense's motion to strike part of the tape secretly recorded by Steven Hoskins, Bonds' former personal assistant and business partner, in which Anderson talks about the drugs he had administered the slugger being undetectable.

Illston also denied the defense's motion to strike the testimony of four former major leaguers who said Anderson provided them steroids and instructions on how to use them.

And, after indicating reluctance to allow Kimberly Bell's testimony about Bonds' testicles having shrunk, Illston reversed course. Bonds' former girlfriend addressed several physical and personality changes she saw in him, which prosecutors contend are consistent with steroid abuse.

Anderson, who has been jailed since March 22 for refusing to testify in the trial, filed a motion to be released later in the day.