IT’S A slow, cold, wet day in Morwell today as the jury continues its deliberations for a second day in the Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts.
Where there was an intense burst of media activity in the sunshine on Monday, after the jury retired to consider its verdict around lunchtime, it’s an altogether deary scene of raincoats and umbrellas today, with media crews hunkering down under makeshift plastic shelters, under the eaves of the court building or covered by camping marquees.
Seven News Melbourne co-host Mike Amor strides across the square in front of the court in an overcoat.
He waits. They wait. We all wait for any sign of movement.
But by the official lunchtime for the courts, at 1pm on Tuesday, the buzzer in the jury room has not been activated, not even for a question.
On the edge of an east-coast low, Morwell is expected to get wetter on Wednesday, before pulling out of the gloom on Friday.
Whether the trial pulls out of its present funk by the weekend is anyone’s guess. How long is a piece of string?
It’s only human nature, that the media pack would be running a sweep on when the jury will make the call. Some say Wednesday or Thursday this week, others are projecting out as far as Monday, July 21. Surely not.
Of course, the most serious of matters are at stake, including the tragic deaths of three much-loved Korumburra residents; Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson in unimaginable circumstances.
And the woman at the centre of the mushroom murder trial, Erin Patterson, waits too, along with the judge Justice Beale and the respective legal teams, all close by, ready to return to court at a moments' notice.
Mrs Patterson has been charged with the murder of three of her in-laws and the attempted murder of a fourth, all charges arising out of a meal of beef Wellington and death cap mushrooms at her Leongatha home on Saturday, July 29, 2023.
Erin Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges maintaining that what happened on the day was a tragedy and a terrible accident.