Confusion reigned in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday after a jury briefly but accidentally found Joshua Higgins guilty of murder.
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Higgins grabbed his chest and his face fell when the forewoman announced he was guilty of the most serious criminal charge.
But after the confused rumblings of the other members of the jury she corrected herself.
"No, sorry," she apologised, before confirming the unanimous verdict was guilty of manslaughter.
In the dock Higgins breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It took the jury two days to reach its decision after a trial that spanned more than three weeks.
Higgins had been kicked out of home and was staying with Mr Oh, 56, at his Gungahlin townhouse on the night of March 10, 2019.
They spent the day and night drinking together, and Higgins consumed up to 30 drinks.
The Crown alleged that Higgins was coming down after injecting ice, was drunk and had barely slept for 60 hours when he stabbed Mr Oh to death in a frenzied drug and alcohol fueled attack.
In his defence, Higgins said he had been provoked when he woke up in an apparent sexual assault by Mr Oh that night.
The 32-year-old argued that they had fought and Mr Oh picked up a knife first, and that he was just trying to survive the attack.
He also argued that his diagnosed PTSD made him not culpable of murder.
It remains a mystery exactly why the jury found Higgins guilty of manslaughter.
The way the case was argued on both sides meant there were three ways they could have arrived at that decision.
They were that if the jury found Higgins did not have the state of mind to cause Mr Oh serious harm, if they found he had diminished responsibility because of his PTSD or if they found he had been provoked by an apparent sexual assault by Mr Oh.
Higgins will be sentenced at a later date.