Jury yet to reach verdict in babysitter Shayal Upashna Sami murder trial

Shayal Upashna Sami. Photo / File

A jury have yet to reach a verdict in the murder trial of Shayal Upashna Sami who is charged with the murder of a toddler she was babysitting.

The jury, in the High Court at Christchurch, retired on Friday morning but did not reach a verdict by 5pm.

They will continue deliberations on Monday.

One-year-old Aaliyah Ashlyn Chand was injured in the care of her babysitter, Sami, who was 18 at the time, after suffering from two fatal skull fractures on January 6, 2015.

The toddler died the next day in hospital.

Sami's defence claims that she put Aaliyah down on the couch to sleep, and was in the kitchen cooking dinner, when the toddler woke up and fell off the couch, in what was described as a "tragic fall".

But the Crown argued that Sami snapped in a "moment of frustration" and harmed the toddler.

The trial began on October 30.