THE jury in the trial of Walcha widow Natasha Beth Darcy has been sent out to consider whether she murdered her partner almost four years ago.
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Justice Julia Lonergan instructed the jury of 11 men and women to leave the NSW Supreme Court to consider their verdict in the closed jury room, shortly before 11am on Wednesday.
The trial resumed on Wednesday morning with Justice Lonergan finishing a summation of the case for and against the accused.
Darcy, aged 46, denies giving Walcha sheep grazier Mathew Dunbar a drug-filled blended drink and then gassing him in bed before his death on August 2, 2017.
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She has pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield has submitted Darcy started looking for ways to murder the Walcha farmer by poison in February 2017, citing searches on her iPhone and on a MAC computer.
The Crown claims Darcy tried to kill her de-facto more than once knowing full well she would inherit his multi-million dollar farm, and left "a staged scene to conceal the fact this was murder".
Defence barrister Janet Manuell SC has submitted 12 distinct reasons to the jury that the Crown has not excluded that Mr Dunbar died by his own hand.
Justice Lonergan, in her summing up of the defence case on Wednesday morning, said Ms Manuell submitted that a lot of lies were told by the accused, and it was part of their case that "once you tell a lie, you have to tell a lot more lies" to make up the initial one.
Justice Lonergan said Ms Manuell "reminded you" that people tell lies for all reasons.
She also said the defence case was that if the jury believed that there was any "reasonable possibility that he died of his own hand, then you must acquit the accused".
The deliberations on the verdict come after a 10 week trial in Sydney that saw multiple witnesses take the stand, and several folders, photos, recordings and transcripts submitted in evidence.
Justice Lonergan told the jury they must reach a unanimous verdict, but they could each rely on different evidence to come to their own conclusion on the verdict.
She said "by whatever route" each of the jury members reach, "the final decision either guilty or not guilty ... must be the decision of all of you unanimously".
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