After more than two days deliberating, a jury in the bus-hub murder trial remains deadlocked.
Justice Rob Osborne sent the 12 jurors home from the High Court at Dunedin yesterday afternoon after they advised they had not yet reached a unanimous verdict.
A 14-year-old boy has spent more than two weeks on trial after pleading not guilty to the murder of 16-year-old Trinity College student Enere Taana-McLaren.
The two clashed on the afternoon of May 23 at the bus hub after a brief verbal exchange.
Enere sustained a single stab wound from the incident and died in hospital shortly afterwards.
There has never been a dispute over the defendant being the one who caused the fatal injury, but he has argued he was defending himself.
His counsel, Anne Stevens KC, told the court her client, who has interim name suppression, never intended to harm Enere and had not realised at the time such a stabbing could be fatal.
In contrast, the Crown argued the defendant was "up for a fight" and attacked the victim in response to an earlier insult.
The jury will continue its deliberations on Monday morning.
