SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds' confident defense team rested its case Wednesday without calling a single witness, just minutes after a federal judge accepted the government's request to dismiss one of the five counts against the home run king.

Prosecutors called 25 witnesses to the stand over 2½ weeks, but the defense needed just one minute to present its side. The jury of eight women and four men barely had time to get settled in the courtroom before being told to return Thursday morning for closing arguments.

"We are expecting that you will get this case for decision tomorrow," U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said to the jurors. "Tomorrow will be the last day."

Once indicted on as many as 15 counts, Bonds will face just four charges when the jury starts deliberations in a court house less than two miles from the ballpark where he set records for the Giants. A decision could come as early as Friday -- when the World Series championship flag is raised in San Francisco for the first time.

Faced with a defense motion that Illston was prepared to grant, prosecutors dropped the count accusing Bonds of lying to a grand jury in 2003 when he said prior to that season he never took anything other than vitamins from trainer Greg Anderson.

The defense said the government presented no evidence that Bonds was given tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) and a testosterone ointment, designer steroids known as "The Clear" and "The Cream," before 2003. Bonds testified in front of the grand jury that Anderson told him the substances were flaxseed oil and arthritic balm.

The remaining counts charge Bonds with lying when he denied knowingly receiving steroids from Anderson, denied getting human growth hormone from Anderson and said he only allowed himself to be injected by doctors. The final count accuses Bonds of obstruction of justice.

Illston issued an order Wednesday night rejecting three of the government's proposed seven answers from Bonds to be included in the jury instructions for the obstruction count -- accusations he was "intentionally evasive, false or misleading" in addition to the false statement charges. The four additional statements involve Bonds saying Anderson always gave him "The Clear" and "The Cream" at the ballpark and not at home; that Bonds didn't keep track of the number of times he used those substances; that he evaded answering whether Anderson gave him anything that required a syringe; and he evaded answering whether Anderson gave him injectable testosterone.

Illston is considering a request from Anderson's lawyers that he be released from prison now that both sides have rested. The government asked for Anderson to be held until the verdict.

On the 11th day of the trial, the defense presentation lasted about the time it took Bonds to circle the bases after one of his record 762 home runs. Lawyer Cristina Arguedas read the jury one answer from the grand jury testimony of former Bonds' girlfriend Kimberly Bell in which Bell said she wrote her own diary. That conflicts with Bell's trial testimony, in which she said ghost writer Aphrodite Jones collaborated on the diary.

Defense lawyer Allen Ruby had said Tuesday he might call up to six witnesses, including Bonds, and every spectator seat in the court room was filled in anticipation. But Bonds' never took the stand to tell the jury his side of the story, signaling the defense believes the government has failed to prove its charges beyond a reasonable doubt.