When jurors return to court Tuesday to determine whether Joseph McEnroe should face death by lethal injection they will hear the most personal details of the six murder victims as well as testimony from McEnroe himself.

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Joseph McEnroe, convicted last week of killing six members of a family in Carnation, is expected to testify during the penalty phase of his trial that will determine whether he is sentenced to life in prison or death.

During the penalty phase, which begins Tuesday, the same jury that convicted him of six counts of aggravated first-degree murder will hear from witnesses speaking on behalf of McEnroe and the victims. At the end of testimony, which is expected to last about three weeks, jurors will decide whether McEnroe will become the 10th man on Washington’s death row or be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

A death sentence requires a unanimous verdict.

On Wednesday, after a two-month trial, McEnroe was found guilty of the fatal shootings of Wayne Anderson, 60; his wife, Judy Anderson, 61; their son Scott, 32; his wife, Erica, also 32; and the younger couple’s two children, Olivia, 5, and Nathan, 3, during a holiday gathering on Christmas Eve 2007.

Prosecutors allege the victims were killed because of a dispute McEnroe’s former girlfriend, Michele Anderson, was having with her parents, Wayne and Judy Anderson, and her brother Scott about money. Michele Anderson also claimed she had been mistreated by her family, according to prosecutors.

Anderson, who will be tried later this year, also could face the death penalty if she is convicted.

King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Scott O’Toole, who tried McEnroe, explained the state and defense are limited in what they can present to the jury during the penalty phase.

“The state can talk about the facts of the crime and the victim impact. The defense can talk about the character of the defendant and the circumstance of the crime,” O’Toole said.

Generally, prosecutors will call one witness to speak about the character of each victim, O’Toole said. He plans to have various relatives and friends testify about the victims, including the two children.

“The defense has the right to put on their mitigation information, and it’s usually much more extensive than the state’s presentation,” O’Toole said.

O’Toole said that the state has been notified that McEnroe will testify during the penalty phase, which will allow him to be cross-examined by the prosecution. Defendants facing the death penalty traditionally wait until closing arguments in the penalty phase to explain why their life should be spared, O’Toole said.

McEnroe, 36, did not testify during his two-month trial.

William Prestia, one of McEnroe’s lawyers, said in an email that the defense anticipates calling McEnroe’s family and former co-workers to testify on his behalf.

While Prestia did not specify which relatives will testify, details about his upbringing and life will likely be presented to jurors.

McEnroe was born in San Jose, Calif., and was diagnosed with a serious blood disorder, his mother, Sean Johnson of Minneapolis, told The Seattle Times shortly after his arrest. At the time, she said the family had lost touch with McEnroe about five years earlier.

Johnson said McEnroe never showed a violent side, though sometimes he had fights in school.

She said she was protective of her son because of his health problems, which included chronic nosebleeds.

Instead of sports, she said, McEnroe read a lot and played imaginative games. She said after his grades slipped in high school, he dropped out and worked at Burger King.

When he was 18, the family moved to Burien for a time, where he worked at Safeway. They then moved to Arizona.

McEnroe was living in Glendale, Ariz., when he met Michele Anderson on an online dating site around 2002, Johnson said. He moved to the Puget Sound region shortly after they met and planned to marry her, Johnson said.

“Mr. McEnroe is presumed to merit leniency, which would result in a sentence of life in prison without possibility of release or parole,” Prestia wrote in the email. “Mr. McEnroe will only face the death penalty if all 12 jurors unanimously agree that the State has proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there are not sufficient mitigating circumstances for Joe to merit the leniency of a life sentence.”

Prestia explained that a mitigating circumstance is “any fact about either the crime or about Mr. McEnroe which in fairness or in mercy may be considered.”

Conner Schierman, who killed a family of four in Kirkland in July 2006, was the last criminal defendant in King County to be sentenced to death. O’Toole prosecuted Schierman as well.

Schierman, who waited until the penalty phase to testify, tearfully pleaded for leniency. The defense maintained that Schierman was in an alcohol-induced blackout and had no recollection of the slayings.

He was sentenced to death in 2010.