The jury in the trial of Mrs Catherine Nevin, a former Wicklow publican accused of murdering her husband, will return to consider its verdict today after spending the night in a Dublin hotel.
The jury of six men and six women was sent to a hotel shortly after 6.30 p.m. yesterday, more than three hours after it had begun its deliberations.
Mrs Nevin (49) has pleaded not guilty to the murder of her husband, Mr Tom Nevin (54), on March 19th, 1996, in their home at Jack White's Inn, Ballinapark, Co Wicklow.
She also denies three separate charges of soliciting Mr John Jones in 1989, Mr Gerry Heapes or Mr William McClean in 1990, to murder Mr Nevin.
Mr Nevin was shot dead as he was counting the St Patrick's weekend takings at the pub he ran with his wife on the N11, the main road between Dublin and Rosslare, Co Wexford. The prosecution claimed Mr Nevin died in a botched robbery designed to conceal a contract killing carried out at the behest of his wife.
The jury will resume its deliberations at 10 a.m. today at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin. If it does not reach a verdict by this evening, it will continue tomorrow.
If the jury convicts Mrs Nevin on one or more of the three separate charges of soliciting to murder, it must then consider the charge of murder. If it acquits her on all charges of soliciting to murder, it must automatically acquit her on the murder charge also.
Miss Justice Carroll completed her summing up of the evidence to jury members yesterday afternoon. She went on to outline the four counts facing Mrs Nevin and asked the jury to consider the soliciting charges before the murder charge.
She said that for the moment she required a unanimous verdict.
Before sending them to the jury room to begin their deliberations at 3.10 p.m., Miss Justice Carroll told them: "It's now over to you. You have to decide the issues that have been put to you."
At 6:12 p.m. she brought the jury back into the court and read brief portions of the evidence again following requisitions from both defence and prosecution counsel.
The jury retired again at 6:20 p.m., but was recalled by Miss Justice Carroll three times over the following 15 minutes to clarify details of the evidence read to them.
At 6:35 p.m. the jury members were sequestered and sent to a hotel for the night under Garda supervision.