Overview

• Justice Christopher Beale delivered comprehensive final instructions over two days, emphasizing that jurors must ignore emotions, media reports and hearsay when assessing testimony and expert evidence.
• The panel of 14 will be reduced by ballot to 12 and sequestered ahead of deliberations, with a unanimous verdict required on three murder counts and one attempted murder count.
• Prosecutors argue Patterson deliberately foraged, dried and measured death cap mushrooms into individual beef Wellingtons to kill her former in-laws, citing phone data and expert testimony on fungal toxicity.
• The defense contends the poisonings were a tragic accident, disputing a clear motive and highlighting alleged inconsistencies in the prosecution’s digital forensics and witness accounts.
• The trial—heard in Morwell since April 29—has featured testimony from over 50 witnesses, including Patterson’s eight days on the stand, and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.