A jury has retired to begin determining the fate of Justin Dilosa, accused of murdering Danielle Easey and dumping her body in Cockle Creek in 2019.
Mr Dilosa, 37, denies being involved in Ms Easey's killing and says his ex-partner, Carol McHenry, acted alone in stabbing and striking Ms Easey in the head with a hammer at a home in Reeves Street, Narara on August 17, 2019.
While he has pleaded not guilty to murder, Mr Dilosa does admit to participating in the cover-up and dumping of Ms Easey's body and has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.
The jury has been told there is no dispute that Ms McHenry "had a part to play in the killing of Danielle Easey".
But it is the prosecution case that both Ms McHenry and Mr Dilosa were "directly involved" in Ms Easey's death and Mr Dilosa stabbed Ms Easey at Narara on the afternoon or evening of August 17.
Ms Easey's body was later found wrapped in plastic and duct tape in Cockle Creek at Killingworth on August 31.
The trial has spent the past five weeks hearing from Mr Dilosa's associates around the time of Ms Easey's death, who claim Mr Dilosa repeatedly made admissions to being involved in Ms Easey's murder.
And after the jury spent several days listening to Mr Dilosa's evidence from earlier court proceedings and the prosecution closed its case, Public Defender Angus Webb revealed last week that he would not be calling a defence case and Mr Dilosa would not be giving evidence again.
The jury then spent three days listening to closing addresses from Crown prosecutor John Stanhope and Mr Webb.
Mr Stanhope focused on elements of Mr Dilosa's evidence that he said "defied logic" and "made no sense", including Mr Dilosa's claim that he left his beloved pig-hunting knife in the house at Narara, went outside and fell asleep in his van on the night Ms Easey was murdered inside.
Mr Stanhope also attacked Mr Dilosa's claims that his relationship with Ms McHenry prompted him to falsely confess to killing Ms Easey to protect her.
Mr Webb's closing address focused on the evidence of a key witness, Jeremy Princehorn, who says he was shown Ms Easey's body at the home at Narara before Mr Dilosa and Ms McHenry both confessed to killing her.
Mr Webb said Mr Princehorn's evidence was "full of contradictions" and "it was a lottery" what he was going to say compared to his police interview and the evidence he gave during prior proceedings.
And he submitted to the jury that Mr Dilosa had made a "ludicrous" plan to claim responsibility for the killing to try to "fix" what happened for Ms McHenry so she could remain with her children.
After listening to Justice Deborah Sweeney spend about an hour summing up the evidence, the jury retired to begin considering a verdict at 11.45am on Tuesday.
