A federal court jury continues deliberations today in the trial of two men accused of a double murder at the Pali Golf Course more than five years ago.

The case went to the jury yesterday morning after Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady spoke for 45 minutes rebutting defense lawyers' arguments that Rodney Joseph Jr. and Ethan "Malu" Motta should be acquitted.

The two are charged with using murder and other violent crimes to protect and promote a racketeering enterprise that centered on illegal gambling operations in Honolulu in 2003 and early 2004.

Defense lawyers said the government failed to first prove that Joseph, 41, and Motta, 40, were part of a racketeering group. Because the murder charge, as well as robbery and extortion counts, were "embedded" in the overall racketeering charge, the defendants must be acquitted of all the charges, the defense attorneys said.

But Brady said yesterday there "is plenty of evidence" tying Joseph and Motta to the racketeering allegation.

The defendants planned the murders to consolidate their hold on illicit gambling in Hawai'i, the prosecutor said.

"Everybody in the underworld would have known that they had gotten away with murder, that they were untouchables," Brady said.

The fact that the murder victims, Lepo Utu Taliese, 44, and Romilius Corpuz Jr., 41, were criminals themselves didn't give Joseph and Motta the right to kill them, said the prosecutor.

"Men like Rodney Joseph and Ethan Motta don't get the right to make that decision about who lives and who dies," Brady said.

"Hold these men responsible for each and every count that they've been charged with," Brady told the jury.

Joseph, Motta and a third man, Kevin "Pancho" Gonsalves, were first charged with murder in state court. Authorities said the murders resulted from a dispute between rival groups providing protection to illegal gambling games.

Federal prosecutors in 2006 indicted the trio in the racketeering case.

All three men entered guilty pleas to the federal charges last year in a plea agreement that called for them to receive up to 27 1/2 years behind bars.

But the pleas were withdrawn after U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway balked at approving the deals, saying she thought life sentences might be required under federal law.

Gonsalves later pleaded guilty again and Mollway sentenced him to the original plea-bargained sentence of 27 1/2 years in prison.

But Motta and Gonsalves decided to go to trial, which began in late January and ended yesterday.