22 Apr 2016

Jury retires for weekend in motel murder trial

5:06 pm on 22 April 2016

A jury deciding on verdicts for two teenagers accused of murdering a man in an Auckland motel room has been released for a second night.

They will return to the High Court in Auckland on Tuesday.

Leonard Nattrass-Bergquist and Beauen Wallace-Loretz have been on trial at the High Court in Auckland.

Both deny murdering 54-year old Ihaia Gillman-Harris in 2014, when they were aged 17.

The Crown said they had a plan to rob and beat Mr Gillman-Harris, who was expecting consensual sex.

But the defence said he was a manipulative and obsessed man, who launched a sexual assault on one of them and that Mr Wallace-Loretz acted to protect his best friend.

The jury retired just before 3pm yesterday.