A woman has been acquitted of the stabbing murder of a man outside his Hunter bail address but the jury couldn't agree on the alternative charge of manslaughter.
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Lily Ridgeway, 22, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Jason Adams, 27, outside a Raymond Terrace home, north of Newcastle, in the early hours of February 29, 2020.
After more than a week of deliberations, the NSW Supreme Court jury in Sydney was discharged on Friday.
The jurors found her not guilty of murder but were unable to reach a verdict on the less serious charge of manslaughter.
That charge will return to court in the arraignments list on July 2.
Despite opposition from the Crown, Justice Helen Wilson granted Ridgeway bail with conditions including she live with her grandmother in Dubbo, report to police daily and not drink alcohol.
Prosecutor Brian Costello had told the jury Mr Adams had been bailed to live at the home of Ridgeway's friend, Nikita Louise Hanson.
He was told to leave on the evening of February 28 but returned early the next morning after a series of increasingly acrimonious text messages between him and Ms Hanson.
Ridgeway, who was also at the address, went outside where she fatally stabbed him once, Mr Costello said.
He acknowledged Ridgeway had previously been the victim of serious domestic violence, but said the events had not involved a domestic relationship or any preceding act of violence.
Her barrister Madeleine Avenell SC told the jury it was not disputed that at the time Mr Adams suffered a single knife wound that Ridgeway was holding the knife.
But the defence did dispute that she deliberately caused the wound, that she intended to at least cause him serious harm and that she had not acted in circumstances of self-defence or defence of Ms Hanson.
In her police interview, Ridgeway said she would go into "survival mode" and black out as a result of domestic violence she had endured in the past from two ex-partners.
She said she had gone outside taking the knife with her which was essentially for her protection.
Ridgeway said she saw a phone in one of Mr Adams' hands and a "reflection" in the other which she thought might be a knife, that he grabbed her and she pushed him before blacking out.
She said she went into "survival mode" and must have acted in self-defence.
Australian Associated Press
