The majority of testimony was completed Saturday in the case of whether Norfolk bank robber Erick Vela should be considered mentally retarted, a label that would save him from the death penalty.

Lawyers planned to take a video deposition from Vela's sister in Texas. Madison County Attorney Joe Smith could call rebuttal witnesses.

Doctor Ari Kalechstein, a neuropsychologist from the University of California Los Angeles and inmates who spent time with Vela testified today.

If the judge determines Vela is mentally retarded and his IQ is 70 or lower, Vela could not be executed for his role in the 2002 Norfolk bank slayings.

Kalechstein said Vela wasn't retarted and he was concerned about the steady, and varied, decline in Vela's scores on three tests administered by three separate psychologists. On the first test Vela received an 87, the second, 75, and the third test, 66.

But inmates said they thought Vela was retarted because they had to help him write letters home and make phone calls.

Vela, Jose Sandoval, Jorge Galindo and Gabriel Rodriguez were convicted of killing five people in a U.S. Bank branch in Norfolk on September 26th, 2002.