Graeme Burton jury retires for night

Auckland Prison at Paremoremo. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

A jury deciding whether Graeme Burton attempted to kill a fellow prison inmate last year has retired for the night after six hours of deliberation.

Burton is on trial at the High Court in Auckland charged with attempting to murder Dwayne Marsh at Auckland Prison at Paremoremo on December 20 last year.

Burton stabbed Marsh several times with a sharpened steel rod in a corridor outside the cells in Paremoremo.

One of these stab wounds, a wound to the heart, caused injuries that required emergency hospital surgery to save Marsh's life.

Jurors came back to the courtroom three times after they retired at 10.10am.

They asked about an hour after they retired to view security camera footage of the incident for a second time.

Later in the afternoon they asked to have a t-shirt Marsh was wearing during the incident removed from its plastic cover so they could take a closer look at it.

A further question was asked about the nature of injuries to Marsh shortly before they retired for the night at 5.30pm.

They will return tomorrow morning, when they will view the security camera footage for a third time.

The Crown says Burton's actions clearly showed he intended to kill Marsh. But Burton's lawyer Peter Tomlinson said Burton may have intended to injure Marsh but there was a reasonable doubt as to whether there was an intention to kill.

- NZPA