UPDATE: Jurors begin deliberating in political blackmail trial for former Sooner Tea Party leader

Update: Jurors left the courtroom shortly before noon Wednesday to begin deliberations in the trial of Sooner Tea Party leader Al Gerhart.

A state senator told an Oklahoma County jury Tuesday the hairs went up on the back of his neck last year when he read a threatening email from Sooner Tea Party leader Al Gerhart.

“I know evil exists,” Sen. Cliff Branan testified at Gerhart’s blackmail trial. “It really scared me.”

Gerhart, an Oklahoma City carpenter, faces two felonies because of the email — blackmail and violating the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.