The jury in Dean Penney’s first-degree murder trial made a brief return to the courtroom on Friday, requesting unedited copies of Penney’s two interviews with an undercover police officer posing as a crime boss.

They also requested definitions of “coercion” and “coercive impact,” which were mentioned in the judge’s final instructions to the jury.

The two unedited videos were provided, which are both several hours long. The jury did not explicitly state they wanted to watch the videos in full.

Penney testified during the trial he was intimidated by the crime boss over the span of the two interviews, during which Penney confessed to killing his estranged wife, Jennifer Hillier-Penney, and disposing of her body.

He said the man began to yell louder and grew red in the face as the first interview progressed. His face was blurred out in the video, however, as the officer’s identity was shielded in open court.

On the topic of coercion, Justice Vikas Khaladkar consulted with lawyers for the Crown and defence before drafting a written response to the jury.

“Coercion involves the use of threats or inducements, express or implied, such that the accused’s will is overcome and leads the accused to feel he has no choice but to confess,” reads part of his answer.

The jury made it through its first full day of deliberations on Thursday without reaching a verdict. They picked up again at 8:30 a.m. NT on Friday.

They’ve been sequestered since Wednesday evening, when Khaladkar gave them a few minutes to call their loved ones before having their cell phones taken away. They are staying at a Corner Brook-area hotel with no phones, TVs or radios in their rooms.

The six men and six women have seen and heard a lot over the last seven weeks. They were presented with more than two dozen witnesses, including Penney himself.

Penney is accused of killing his estranged wife, Jennifer Hillier-Penney, on Nov. 30, 2016.

He became the subject of a covert RCMP operation that spanned more than four years. The plan, known as a Mr. Big sting, saw Penney invited into a fake criminal organization run entirely by undercover police officers. Years into the operation, an officer posing as the crime boss interviewed Penney for a job as the captain of his yacht.

During the interview, he told Penney the group had information that he was about to be arrested for his wife’s murder. He said another member of the group, who was terminally ill, was willing to take the rap for Penney, but they needed to know all there was to know about the killing.

Penney initially insisted he had nothing to do with Hillier-Penney’s disappearance, but changed his story later in the interview. He said they got into an argument at their house in St. Anthony. She slapped him, and he pushed her. She fell over the stairs and hit her head off Penney’s gun safe. He wrapped her body up and disposed of it in the water.

A week later, the undercover officer posing as the crime boss pressed Penney for more details. This time he said he bludgeoned her with a mallet after she fell over the stairs to make sure she was dead.

The defence argued there were numerous inconsistencies between the two stories, and said Penney was scrambling to tell the crime boss what he thought he wanted to hear.

The Crown argued Penney felt more comfortable telling the story the second time around, and was finally giving them the truth.

The Crown contends Penney killed his wife in a planned and deliberate act of murder, fueled by anger and jealousy about her leaving him.

The defence maintains Penney was pressured into giving a false confession, and that he was scared of the group he’d become entangled with.

It’s now in the jury’s hands to decide whether the Crown has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. They can find Penney guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, manslaughter, or not guilty of anything.

SOURCE: CBC