An ACT Supreme Court jury has retired to consider its verdict for a daughter who allegedly killed her mother with a hammer at their family home in Canberra's north.
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Gabrielle Woutersz, 25, was charged with murdering Norma Cheryl Woutersz, 56, after she dealt a series of fatal blows to her mother's head with a claw hammer in Dunlop in October 2014.
It's alleged Woutersz then dragged her mother's body into the backyard and tried to bury it in a planter box she had emptied dirt from.
Woutersz was charged after her father arrived home to find his wife's body, bound to a stepladder, in the backyard and the accused inside the house cooking eggs.
She pleaded not guilty and faced trial in the Supreme Court.
The jury has heard Woutersz was experiencing psychotic symptoms at the time of the alleged murder, which included hearing voices, and had sought mental health help in the ACT when she returned from interstate a few days earlier.
It has not been disputed Woutersz killed her mother, or that she was in the grip of an acute psychotic episode.
Prosecutors said Woutersz's state of mind was fuelled by her long-term illicit drug habit, which included binges on ice, while her lawyers have argued she suffered schizophrenia and should be found not guilty due to mental impairment.
Chief Justice Helen Murrell on Wednesday said in her directions the jury could return one of three possible verdicts: guilty of murder, not guilty of murder, or not guilty by reason of mental impairment.
Ms Murrell told jurors they might find the issue of whether drugs or schizophrenia triggered Woutersz's state of mind at the time of the killing to be "the most contentious question".
She noted it was by no means an easy matter and would require them to examine evidence of the defendant's behaviour, diagnosis, treatment and the opinions of psychiatrists and health professionals.
The jury was sent out shortly after midday on Wednesday.
The Crown, represented by prosecutor Shane Drumgold, this week called on jurors to see the episode and killing as the result of Woutersz's consumption of illicit substances, largely ice, and said her drug use and bizarre behaviour had peaked at that time.
Mr Drumgold argued Woutersz knew what she was doing when she attacked her mother, knew that it was wrong, and actively pursued a mental impairment defence in the months after the killing.
Defence barrister Bernard Collaery argued Woutersz suffered a long-standing mental illness, namely schizophrenia, and that meant she was not able to properly understand her actions on the day of the fatal attack were wrong.
He rejected the prosecution's suggestion his client was "a damaged ice addict" and said six psychiatric experts had been consistent in their diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
Mr Collaery said there had been no evidence that Woutersz had taken ice more than a month before the killing.
Jurors will continue deliberations on Thursday.
