A jury in a trial in which a Hastings woman is charged with the manslaughter of her boyfriend has been told by a judge to ignore the fact that it is a retrial.
The warning came from Justice Lowell Goddard yesterday in the High Court in Napier at the start of the second trial of Juliette Anne Gerbes, who turns 22 next week and who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter by assaulting boyfriend Christopher Robin Jones.
Mr Jones was 22 when he died after being stabbed early on the morning of October 13, 2012, in the flat the couple shared with three other people in King St, Hastings.
Justice Goddard did not explain why it is a retrial but told the jury of eight women and four men the reasons are irrelevant and they are to decide the case only on what they see and hear in court.
It is expected to last three days, with Crown prosecutors Clayton Walker and Megan Mitchell expecting to to call seven witnesses, including three others who were in the flat, along with three police officers and a pathologist.