KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Andrew Mann takes the stand to testify at his double murder trial, admitting he pulled the trigger but saying it was all his pregnant girlfriend's idea.

Mann says Amanda McGhee told him her father was abusing her, and he saw bruises that made him believe her. He says the 15-year-old begged him to commit murder, saying her safety and the life of the couple's unborn child depended on it.

Mann says his girlfriend , Amanda McGhee, then 15 years old and pregnant with his baby, had been begging him to kill her father for weeks.

"She said if you love me and my child in my tummy you're going to do it....Later she found her Dad's gun and said it's gotta happen now."

On the stand is his own defense, Mann testified he had had a run-in with Terrance McGhee. Just weeks before the shooting, Mann said McGhee pointed a gun at him and demanded his driver's license.

"He said I'm gonna kill you right here and right now."

He then described shooting McGhee.

"I went back in Terrance's room, opened his door, got the pistol out, and fired one time."

"It was one gunshot to the back of the head as the 60-year-old slept in bed at his Solway home. He says Amanda McGhee was in another room when he shot, but soon greeted him.

"She came out and gave me a kiss and told me 'we're one step down and one to go.' She went in her dad's room and said, 'that (expletive deleted) got what he deserved'."

Mann says the one step to go was her stepmother, Alisa McGhee, was was due home from work hours later on the late June morning in 2007.
Pratt: Mann says Amanda insisted Alisa, had to die too. Saying that Alisa came in the front door, she shut the front door, he came around the corner and told her you need to sit down and talk. He claims he was hoping she'd get out a cell phone and call the police.

She never made the call. Mann says she tried to escape and he fired off a couple of rounds and killed her."

The jury is expected to begin deliberations tomorrow. The state's not asking for the death penalty or life without parole. If the jury convicts Mann of first degree murder, he'll spend over fifty years in prison. The jury can also consider lesser forms of homicide.

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Andrew Bryan Mann described himself as a loner who had trouble making friends.

Those words as Mann, 22, took the stand in his own defense at his double murder trial Thursday afternoon.

Mann told the jury his stepfather kicked him out of the house after he dropped out of school in the 11th grade. He would later fail in his attempt to get his GED.

Mann said his biological father is in prison.

Mann testified his girlfriend, Amanda McGhee often called him crying about being physically abused. He says he saw bruises on her and hand prints on her face.

He testified she told him, "If you love me, do something for me. Help me."

Mann says that Amanda's father, Terrance McGhee pulled a gun on him in his driveway and cursed him. Mann told the court that Terrance McGhee threatened him by saying, "I'm going to kill you right here and now" if Mann didn't let Terrance McGhee see Mann's driver license.

"Amanda tole me that we should kill her dad," Mann testified. "She told me I've got an idea how to do it. We could use battery acid."

Mann told the court that Amanda McGhee later found Terrance McGhee's gun and she told man "it's gotta happen now."

Mann testified that Amanda told him, "If you love me and my child in my tummy, you're gonna do it."

State prosecutors rested their case against Andrew Bryan Mann, 22, just before lunch recess Thursday morning.

Mann is accused of carrying out a plot to kill is now 17-year-old girlfriend's parents on Jolly Lane in Knox County's Solway community in 2007.

On Wednesday, the jury heard chilling testimony at Mann's double trial. Jurors hear a tape of the defendant admitting to the shootings and from a witness who was inside the Solway home on the deadly night.

Witnesses told the jury that Mann and his pregnant teenage girlfriend, Amanda McGhee, had been telling them about their plans to murder her family. Both say they thought it was just talk from a couple frustrated because the parents would not let them be together, but then the deadly reality hit home hard.

"He wanted to know if he should shoot him in the back of the head and I told him I didn't know," Christopher Kirkland said.

Up until an early morning phone call on June 29th, 2007, Kirkland thought it was just talk. He says he never suspected his friend Andrew Mann would actually commit murder.

Within minutes of that call, prosecutors say Mann shot Terrance McGhee while he slept.

"I went back in Terrance's room, opened his door, got the pistol out and fired one time," Mann testified.

He says Amanda then came to the hall from the other room and gave him a kiss and then said, "We've got one step down and one to go."

Mann says Amanda McGhee then went into her dad's room and said, "That son of a bitch got what he deserved."

Hours later, Mann called Kirkland a second time to take him to the crime scene.

Kirkland testified, "That's when I seen her dad laying on the bed."

Prosecutor Leslie Nassios asked him "What did you do?"

He replied, "I freaked out, told him, get me out of here."

Kirkland says he knew Alisa McGhee would be the next victim, but feared Mann would kill him or his family, if he tried to tell police.

Nassios asked him, "What did Andrew tell you he was gonna do?"

Kirkland answered, "He told me he was gonna kill her, because if she was to live she would be a witness to the murder of Mr. McGhee."

Mann himself admitted to the killings in his taped confession to Knox County detectives. He says he took action when Alisa McGhee arrived home from work. He was waiting, and took her to the couch. Saying "She said, 'are you going to kill me?' I said 'I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to'."

That's when Mann says Alisa "made a bolt for the kitchen" and he "let off a round."

Amanda McGhee's friend Rebbecca Duggan also took the stand.

She says she delivered a bag from Amanda to Andrew. That bag contained Terrance Mann's gun, the gun prosecutors say was used in the murders.

Duggan says she thought she'd talked Amanda out of her plans with a strong warning. Duggan says she told her, "If you do it, I will turn you in. She started crying and said we'll call the whole thing off."

Amanda McGhee will be tried separately in January. It's important to note, Christopher Kirkland was charged as an accessory in the case.

He took a plea deal in exchange for his testimony against Mann. Prosecutors only have three witnesses left.

The state is expected to rest its case Friday.

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn (WVLT) -- "Are you going to kill me?"

A Knox County jury heard Andrew Mann tell police investigators what Alisa McGhee asked him one evening in late June of 2007.

On an interrogation tape played at Mann's trial today he told Knox County Sheriff's Office investigators he had already shot McGhee's husband Terrance McGhee and was waiting for her to return home from work.

Mann told investigators he told Alisa to sit on the couch and talk to him. To her question, he could be heard responding, "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to."

Wednesday morning, the jury heard tearful testimony from a former co-defendant in the mulders of a Solway couple in June 2007.

Christopher Kirkland, 24, told the court Andrew Mann, 22, pressured him into helping him kill Terrance and Alisa McGhee.

Kirkland says he agreed to help to get Mann of his back. But Kirkland told the jurors in Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bruce Baumgartner's courtroom he never believed Mann would go through with it.

He said he even told Mann, "If I ever had to kill anybody, I'd do it like the military does and shoot him in the head."

Kirkland testified Mann called him on the night of ths shooting asking if he should go ahead and shoot Terrance in the back while he slept.

Kirkland testified he said, "I don't know."

Kirkland told the court he later met Mann and say Terrance McGhee's dead body inside his Solway home. Despite that, he says he never told police about Terrance's murder, or Mann's plan to kill Alisa because, he says, Mann threatened to kill him if he told.

Alisha McGhee was killed when she returned home from work that evening.

Testimony in Mann's murder trial continues at this hour. Rob Pratt is in the courtroom and will have a full report at 4, and 5:30 on VolunteerTV.com. We will update this story as new developments take place.

Mann and Amanda McGhee, 17, are both charged with two counts of first degree murder in the case.

Kirkland was originally charged by police with two counts of first degree murder, but those charges were reduced to accessory after the fact. He took a plea deal on Monday, pleading guilty to those charges in exchange for his testimony against Mann. He could be sentenced to up to two years in jail, but his lawyer is planning to file for diversion.

Early Wednesday afternoon, a juror in the case was excused from duty.

WVLT Volunteer TV court reporter Rob Pratt says other jurors told the judge the excused juror was discussing the case with them during breaks.

Baumgartner ordered the testimony to continue with only 13 members; the twelve member jury and one remaining alternate.