A jury has been dismissed after being unable to arrive at a verdict over the death of Bernd Lehmann, who was found bludgeoned to death with a statuette on Valentine's Day 2008.
Naji Fakhreddine, 69 is accused of murdering Mr Lehmann following a sexual encounter in his inner-west Sydney apartment in the suburb of Ashfield.
The 66-year-old German national had been due to fly back to Germany, a jury was told as a retrial in the cold case murder began in September.
On Thursday, jurors returned after five days of deliberations to say they had been unable to reach a verdict.
Justice Julia Lonergan sent the group back to the jury room, instructing them the court would instead accept a majority verdict, however they returned a short time later saying even that could not be done.
Crown prosecutor Sally Traynor earlier told the jury Fakhreddine's DNA linked him to the crime, and that he had lied to police about Mr Lehmann being killed in a home invasion.
The pair had met at a nearby leagues club and gone back to Mr Lehmann's home, where he performed oral sex on Fakhreddine before the violent attack, she said.
Lehmann's body was found soon after lying face down in his kitchen doorway, with the 2.7kg statuette, covered in blood next to him.
A large, 17cm cut had been made to the back of his neck and white flecks of plastic were found inside the 5cm-deep wound, the jury heard.
In September 2020, familial DNA taken from Fakhreddine's son matched him to swabs taken at Mr Lehmann's unit by officers 12 years earlier, Ms Traynor said.
DNA from the statuette and semen found in Mr Lehmann's mouth during an autopsy was matched with Fakhreddine, the jury heard.
He was arrested in March 2021 but has always denied having anything to do with the murder.
Defence barrister Jennifer Ellis told the jury it was up to the prosecution to exclude all reasonable hypotheses consistent with Fakhreddine's innocence.
"It is like a jigsaw puzzle where the Crown will ask you to put all the pieces together," she said.
