Jury undecided over 'seven-in-one' trial

Navtej Singh. Photo / Supplied

The jury in the Navtej Singh murder trial will continue its deliberations today after retiring yesterday without a verdict.

They are considering 10 charges against seven young men who are accused of being involved in the killing and aggravated robbery of South Auckland liquor store owner Navtej Singh.

Mr Singh, 30, died from a single gunshot wound to his abdomen the day after his Manurewa liquor store was robbed at gunpoint on June 7, 2008.

Anitilea Chan Kee, Myron Felise, Tino Felise, Eti Filoa, Walter McCarthy and Jason Naseri are accused of murdering Mr Singh. Tino Felise, Filoa and McCarthy are accused of aggravated robbery.

Anitilea Chan-Kee, Myron Felise and Naseri have pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery.

A seventh man, Mefiposeta Chan-Kee, is charged with being an accessory after the killing.

The jury retired at 5pm after deliberating for 2 hours.

Before they did, in his summary of the trial, Justice Graham Lang advised they should deal with the accused one by one, because it was effectively seven trials in one.

He warned them to take care with what witnesses claimed they had seen or heard at a party before the robbery because it was a moving and dynamic scene with people coming and going at different times.

That limited their ability to hear what exactly was happening so they had to take that into account when assessing the reliability of witnesses.

"Nobody was thinking 'I'm going to have to remember this' ... they were at a party, drinking, smoking cannabis, being social." It's not that type of event [where] people think 'I better remember this'."

A key aspect for jurors to consider was the intention of each of the accused when they left the party.

Jurors would have to draw inferences by looking at the circumstances surrounding the witnesses at the time and the facts they're "sure have been established".

They were cautioned to be careful if they decided an accused had told lies during his evidence. The judge said just because lies were told did not mean the accused were guilty of the crimes they'd been charged with.

"People in situations of stress will tell lies because they're panicked, stressed, confused and not knowing what else to do." They could also be lying to protect someone else.

Justice Lang said the extent to which the accused had been drinking before the robbery needed to be taken into account because alcohol could cloud someone's judgment.

To find Anitilea Chan Kee guilty of murder, the jury had to be sure he knowingly ran the risk of killing someone or causing him serious harm, even if that's not what he set out to do.

Chan Kee says the shooting wasn't a deliberate action and he fired accidently under "extreme stress".

The others are charged with Mr Singh's murder because the Crown says they were a party to the killing.

An essential element prosecutors had to prove for them to be found guilty of the murder charge was they knew there was a loaded firearm being taken to the liquor store and knew it was likely it could be used by Chan Kee to carry out the robbery.

The jury will resume their deliberations at 9.30am today.