The legal dispute between Guy Sebastian and his former manager, Titus Day, has ended in a hung jury.
As previously reported, the NSW District Court returned a partial verdict on Tuesday, finding Day not guilty of four counts of embezzlement. The jury was told to continue to deliberate on the remaining 30 counts, with the option of returning majority 11-1 verdicts if unanimous decisions were not possible.
According to the ABC, the jurors today sent a note to Judge Alister Abadee, indicating they remained deadlocked, and the foreperson confirmed they would not reach either unanimous or majority decisions.
The judge discharged the panel, thanking them for their service.
During the trial, the court heard claims that Day had embezzled $620,000 from the original Australian Idol between 2013 and 2020, which culminated in his arrest by NSW Police.
Day’s defence team argued the Crown had failed to disprove whether any misapplication of funds was not deliberate but rather a mistake, and that the prosecution was “misconceived” and questioned why police didn’t leave the two men to “battle it out” in the Federal Court.
Earlier, Day pleaded not guilty. But a jury found him guilty of 34 of the 49 charges.
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Those unanimous “not guilty” verdicts earlier this week accounted for about $114,000 in performance fees relating to a Big Bash game, a wedding, a corporate gig for Harvey Norman and an ambassadorship with Dreamworld.
The case will now return to court for a mention, the ABC reports, and the DPP must now decide whether the matter will go to another retrial. Day remains on bail.
Sebastian’s case will be a huge distraction for the singer, who is preparing the release of a 10th studio album, 100 Times Around the Sun, is due out August 8th through Sony Music.
The veteran singer and songwriter signed with Sony Music back in 2003, after he was crowned the first Australian Idol. Since then, he’s been one of the music giant’s frontline domestic artists, selling more than four million albums and landing six No. 1 singles, the most by any Australian male artist in ARIA history.
Sebastian’s ninth and most recent album T.R.U.T.H., debuted at No. 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart 2020, his third leader following Just As I Am (December 2003) and Armageddon (December 2012).
