Afterwards Justice Brendan Brown sent the jury home for the night to continue deliberations on Wednesday.
The Crown allege Swain, 58, shot Mr Hansen five times after an argument, stored his body for 10 days, then sealed it in a 44-gallon drum before dumping it in the Whanganui River.
His defence have argued Mr Hansen arrived at Swain's Akers Rd property already fatally wounded and that the Crown had only proved he was an accessory after the fact.
Earlier yesterday morning Justice Brown summed up the case for the jury.
During the 15-day trial the defence had agreed to disclose Swain's past convictions, including for bombing a police station, to the jury, in part to explain his nickname "bomber".
But Justice Brown said that was not relevant when considering the verdict.
"My direction to you is to ignore the evidence about his prior convictions," he said.
It was a circumstantial case which meant it was necessary to draw inferences from multiple pieces of evidence, Justice Brown said.
"Circumstantial evidence relies on reasoning by inference."
He reminded the jury the onus of proof was on the Crown and not Swain.
While a 'not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter' was a verdict open to the jury, Justice Brown said, "it was not seen as a practical outcome in this case" because neither side had contended that was what happened.
The deliberations continue at 9am.
