Nai Yin Xue was accused of murdering his wife An An Liu (inset) and dumping her body. Photos / Paul Estcourt, Supplied
The jury in the of martial arts expert Nai Yin Xue, accused of murdering his wife An An Liu, has retired until tomorrow morning.
The case made headlines worldwide when Xue, 55, abandoned his 3-year-old daughter in Melbourne, sparking an international manhunt.
Jurors deliberated for over five hours in the
High Court Auckland, after being sent out just before midday today, but have so far not reached a verdict.
Under new legislation jurors are no longer required to stay at a hotel overnight and they will tonight head to their homes. They will return at 9am tomorrow.
Yesterday, Crown prosecutor Aaron Perkins told jurors if they used their combined common sense they "might not find [their] task in this case very difficult at all".
An "avalanche of evidence" existed that pointed towards Xue being the killer, he said.
The defence's claim that Ms Liu died as part of some sex act gone wrong was "nothing short of a bizarre explanation - that's because there's no one else to point the finger at".
Mr Perkins said it was a desperate attempt for the defence to say someone else was involved in Ms Liu's death and jurors should reject the idea that someone was setting up Xue.
It was his house, his tie and his wife and that made it hard for them to consider someone else could have killed her, Mr Perkins said.
Xue's previous violence towards her, his mood the day before the murder when he feared she was sleeping with someone else, and his movements in the days after the killing were all factors the jury had to weigh up.
"They are the actions of a man who has killed his wife and is trying to get away with it."
Closing the defence case on behalf of Xue, Chris Comeskey said there was no evidence at all that said the defendant killed his wife.
No evidence existed that Ms Liu was killed at the couple's Mt Roskill house so police couldn't even be sure when she died, he said.
Xue left New Zealand because he thought his wife had left him and his business was failing, Mr Comeskey said.
"All of the imagery you see is of a man who doesn't know where his wife is, I suggest."
