SAN DIEGO -- The judge in the David Westerfield murder trial told jurors Tuesday that they likely will begin deliberations next week and that being sequestered remains a possibility.

"It appears to me that next week you'll hear closing arguments and be in deliberations," Superior Court Judge William Mudd said to jurors before testimony began.

Mudd said that because of scheduling problems with expert witnesses, testimony would only be taken Tuesday and Thursday. He said he thinks attorneys in the case will finish their cases by Monday.

On the possibility of sequestering jurors while they deliberate, Mudd told them he had not made a final decision.

Several jurors have expressed family concerns if they were to be put up in a hotel during that time. Mudd said he was taking those concerns into account. He said that right now he does not plan to sequester them.

Mudd's concern was raised by an incident last week when someone allegedly followed two jurors to their cars and wrote down their license plate numbers.

Mudd also added to his usual admonition against watching or reading media reports on the Westerfield case, or anything related to it.

The Samantha Runnion case from Orange County is "permeating the media," as Mudd put it.

"The fact is the case is not similar in any way, shape or form," Mudd said.

Mudd also told jurors not to watch a show on cable television about the so-called "Body Farm" at the University of Tennessee, where researchers study decomposition.

Two witnesses in the Westerfield case are included in the program, Mudd told the jurors.

"You probably know more about the body farm than you ever wanted to know in your life," Mudd concluded.