Trail again delayed

 Delays caused by "last-minute legal arguments" meant the jury did not start deliberating yesterday on the verdicts for five people charged following the violent death of a farm worker in North Otago.

The trial at the High Court at Dunedin into the death of Justin McFarlane did not get under way yesterday until after 2pm, when Justice David Gendall began summing up.

Justice Gendall's summing up came in the ninth week of the trial -- initially set down for six -- which has often been halted for legal arguments.

He started yesterday by apologising to the jury for the delay, saying it had been caused by "last-minute legal arguments".

Before summing up the separate defence and Crown cases relating to each of the accused he touched on legal matters.

He told the jurors if they decided a murder accused was not guilty of being either a principal or secondary party to murder, they must then consider whether they were guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

If the jury was considering whether Steven Boskell was guilty of manslaughter, jurors would need to weigh up his evidence that he was acting under compulsion from Robert Cummings, who he said was standing over him with a golf club when he struck Mr McFarlane.

This was because "compulsion" was allowed as a defence for manslaughter and not murder.

Both the Crown and Cummings' counsel Anne Stevens argued Boskell was not acting under compulsion.

He reiterated to the jury the fact there was "five separate trials" and each needed to be considered individually.

While there was a lot of evidence of bad character against the murder accused, he said: "This is not a case about whether any of the male defendants is a nice guy."

The judge then spent a lengthy amount of time summarising both the Crown and defence cases, after which he adjourned the trial until this morning when the jury would be sent out to deliberate.

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The charges

Charged with murdering Justin Conrad McFarlane (35) in his Pine Hill Rd farm house in Elderslie, North Otago, in September last year, are. --

Robert James Cummings (23), of Oamaru.

Steven Kenneth Boskell (20), of Palmerston.

Ryan Geary-Smart (24), of Oamaru.

His brother, Jacob Christopher Geary-Smart (23), of Oamaru.

Charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder is. --

Stephanie Rose McCormack (27), of Timaru.

ODT ml