A jury continues to deliberate the fate of Michael Robertson, accused of killing 42-year-old Rocky Genereaux in March 2015.
The second-degree murder trial wrapped up Wednesday afternoon and was handed over to the jury hearing the case.
Robertson was charged following a cell phone dispute in a home on Avenue I South.
READ MORE: Saskatoon man recounts 2015 stabbing on the stand at his murder trial
He testified that he left his BlackBerry device at the residence and it was not working correctly after retrieving it.
During the trial, Robertson said he confronted Genereaux about the device, believing he had tampered with it.
Roberston testified that during the altercation, Genereaux became agitated, claimed to have HIV and lunged at him with an uncovered needle. He said the stabbing was in self defence.
The jury heard closing arguments before beginning their deliberations Wednesday afternoon.
READ MORE: Trial begins in 2015 Saskatoon homicide case
Defence lawyer Brent Little claimed that Robertson’s testimony matched the majority of the other witnesses called and therefore it should be believed.
“He did not want to cause Rocky Genereaux’s death,” said Little during his closing argument.
“Imagine how quickly this happened.”
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Little argued it was understandable that Robertson fled the scene after the incident, since he was on parole and didn’t want to get arrested.
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During his testimony, Robertson claimed he didn’t know he killed Genereaux until two days later when he was shown a news report.
Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko contended that the evidence shows Genereaux didn’t show the demeanor of a man who just attacked someone with a needle in the aftermath of the incident.
She argued that Genereaux sounded bewildered in the background of a frantic 911 call played in court and there was no open or used needle recovered at the scene.
She added that “there’s no evidence that Rocky had any reason to attack Mr. Robertson” and questioned why he would lunge at the accused, who testified that he was holding a roughly two-foot knife in his defence.
“Why would he advance … why would he lunge his body toward a two foot knife,” Claxton-Viczko asked the jury.
“Is he suicidal?”
She also argued that Robertson could have used the much larger object to defend himself without killing the victim.
“He can chop his arm off if need be,” said Claxton-Viczko to the jury.
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