Supreme Court Jury fails to reach verdict in Biannca Edmunds murder trial
A mother accused of plotting with her husband to kill her ex-lover will face a retrial after a jury was unable to return a verdict.
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A jury has been unable to return a verdict against a mother accused of plotting with her husband to kill her ex-lover.
The 12-person jury told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that it had reached a point where they were unable to unanimously agree on whether Biannca Edmunds was guilty or not guilty of a single count of murder.
They had been deliberating since noon on Thursday following a three-week trial.
The jury were told Ms Edmunds, 36, was in Shepparton when her husband, Glen Cassidy, drove 170km to Michael Caposiena’s Westmeadows unit in Melbourne and shot him dead on March 12, 2016.
While she did not pull the trigger, police allege she had colluded and directed her husband of only three weeks to kill Mr Caposiena, 32, because she was angry he was trying to get more custody rights to their young son.
The trial heard the newlyweds sourced a gun and surveilled Mr Caposiena’s Pascoe St flat, even drawing a map of the surrounding area identifying where street lights, security cameras and barking dogs were, in the weeks before.
Ms Edmunds pleaded not guilty to murder, claiming Cassidy, 49, acted alone.
She told police any suggestion that she was involved was “absurd”.
“I’m not a psycho,” she said in a 2016 police interview. “I have never wished anyone dead.”
She painted herself as the grieving widow, after Cassidy was also killed in the botched assassination attempt when his victim fatally stabbed him during a wrestle before being shot.
Justice Lex Lasry thanked the jurors for their service, saying “these things happen” and that they weren’t the first jury in history to not return a verdict.
“It’s been a difficult trial – obviously you found it challenging,” Justice Lasry told the jury.
“There is no choice but to discharge you.”
The case will return to court on Friday where dates will be set for a retrial.
As Ms Edmunds walked from court with her solicitor, Jack Rabl, they both declined to comment.
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