The jury deciding if Nai Yin Xue is guilty of killing his wife and dumping her body in the boot of his car will continue deliberating this morning after failing to reach a verdict last night.
The all-female jury told Justice Hugh Williams they wanted to retire for the nightjust before 5pm. They had begun deliberating at 11.50am.
The jurors asked no questions yesterday afternoon, but they did ask for a whiteboard to assist them.
New laws introduced this year mean jurors do not have to stay together overnight so they could go home and return to the High Court at Auckland at 9am.
Justice Williams said they had been working diligently all day and allowed their request.
He indicated it was the likely course of action before he summed up the three-week trial.
During his summing-up, he reminded them that they were in a "court of fact", not a "court of morals".
Just because Xue abandoned his then 3-year-old daughter Qian Xun at a Melbourne railway station, they could not assume he was guilty of murder - but they could take account of the fact when considering if it was circumstantial evidence.
The Crown alleges Xue killed his young wife, An An Liu, by strangling her with a tie.
They said an "avalanche of evidence" pointed towards him and that defence attempts to say Ms Liu died as the result of a sex game gone wrong were "desperate" and "bizarre".
Prosecutor Aaron Perkins said claims that Xue was set up were wrong and that by using their common sense their task should not be difficult.
"The killer of An An Liu," he said, pointing to Xue, "is sitting right here in your company."
Xue's lawyer, Chris Comeskey, told the jury there was no evidence that proved Xue killed his wife.
Police could not be sure where she died and he suggested her involvement in some sort of sex act could not be ruled out as a cause of her death.
"If you're not happy about the when, where and how, I'd be very reluctant to accept the who," he said.
Ms Liu had been secretive and had traces of DNA on her underwear from two men other than Xue.
