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Jury against discharged in Melbourne man's murder trial
Ricardo Barbaro will face a third murder trial after a jury was discharged to give lawyers time to examine new evidence.
The 36-year-old has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his on-off girlfriend Ellie Price, whose body was found in her South Melbourne apartment in May 2020.
His first trial began at the beginning of May, with 14 jurors selected but Justice Lex Lasry had to discharge them after a juror independently researched the case.
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He has reported that juror to prosecutors for a criminal charge.
On Friday the frustrated judge discharged a second jury of 14 after hearing only a few days of evidence.
He told jurors there were legal issues over phone evidence from one of the witnesses, and time was needed for both the prosecution and defence to download material and examine what was in it.
"We could have sent you home and brought you back Monday, I'm told it can't be done that quickly," Justice Lasry said.
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"It is most unfortunate the 14 of you have been kept waiting, put through the process of empanelment, now it turns out all for nothing.
"I'm sure you feel frustrated and, as you might have picked up, I also feel."
He fixed a new trial date for Barbaro on August 2.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
