The trial has been running for more than four weeks, and has focused on multiple strands of circumstantial evidence, including analysis of blood patterns at the scene, forensic dissections of DeLuney’s bank accounts, and CCTV footage of DeLuney’s movements after the death.

The key points:

Crypto spending

Forensic accounting revealed DeLuney was not making enough money to support her spending habits without a mystery $75,000 cash injection across the year before Gregory’s death.

She also spent more than $150,000 on cryptocurrency in that time, and allegedly took her mother’s money and invested it without her knowledge.

The Crown suggested finances were a motive for DeLuney to kill Gregory.

Staging the scene

DeLuney told police her mother fell from the attic and hit her head on the night in question, suffering a small injury that did not appear to be serious.

She said she left her mother lying on the floor and went to get her husband so he could help decide what to do with Gregory. When she came back, the house was a “warzone” with blood smeared down the walls, attic ladder and utility cupboard.

A forensic expert said the blood could only have been put in these places later, rather than transferred there from an injured person as they staggered to the bedroom.

The Crown said this meant DeLuney had staged the scene, while the defence argued the mystery attacker must have done it.

The rubbish bag

The Crown showed CCTV footage of DeLuney leaving her mother’s house on 8 Baroda St and driving to a petrol station, with what the Crown suggests was a yellow council rubbish bag in the passenger seat of the car.

Bishop said DeLuney may have used the bag to conceal her bloodied clothes and the murder weapon, believed to be a heavy vase, and that she disposed of it in the skip bin near her studio apartment.

She then suggested DeLuney took the bag out the next morning and put it into a black plastic bag, which she was seen on CCTV putting into a wheelie bin down the street for the rubbish truck to empty.

A police search of the landfill nearby did not reveal anything.

The defence argument

Duff said police had started the “attic myth”, claiming police wrongly believed DeLuney had said the fall from the attic caused her mother’s fatal injuries.

He said if the jury applied the “attic myth” to many of DeLuney’s actions, it would look “weird”, but removing that lens revealed ordinary actions when assessed with a knowledge of DeLuney’s regular habits.

He suggested an intruder had burst through the patio doors, knocking a curtain partially from its railing, and chased and killed Gregory while she was waiting for DeLuney to return.

The jury delivered its verdict after 11.5 hours of deliberating.

Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.