THE jury in the trial of two men accused of murdering Falmouth man Aaron Pill has been sent home after it failed to reach a verdict on the first day of its deliberations.

Judge Simon Carr sent the jury home at Truro Crown Court this afternoon at 4pm after four and a half hours of deliberation.

Kane Coggin and Liam Bastow, with addresses in Mylor Bridge, are jointly charged with murdering Mr Pill at his home in Tresawle Road, Falmouth on May 4 this year following an argument over a £400 drug debt.

Coggin, 27, of Meadowbank and Bastow, 24, of Avalon Close have admitted manslaughter but deny murder.

Earlier the jury was told by the prosecuting barrister Adam Keest QC that: "These two defendants acting jointly and in concert set out that night to do exactly what it was in fact they did do, inflict serious violence on Mr Pill."

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He said by far and away the most truthful and accurate thing either Bastow or Kane Coggin had said was when Bastow said in his first interview: “The only reason you carry knives is to f****g hurt people with them.”

He said this was a “ferocious joint attack” by the two men. "Together and in concert they attacked Aaron Pill in his own home. You have seen first-hand the ferocity of that attack perpetrated by the defendants against their victim as soon as he opened the door. A door he'd been deceived into opening by the man that he might recognise lurking in the dark outside that garden gate.”

But in her summing up to the jury, Bastow’s defence barrister Joanna Martin QC said the attack on Mr Pill had shown a ‘shambolic’ lack of planning and was ‘half-baked’ and her client never intended to kill.

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'Shambolic' and 'half-baked' plan to rob led to Aaron Pill's death rather than murder, jury told

“This plan is a little ropey isn’t it?” she asked the jury. “Coggin went home got two caps, a knife and scarf and there was some sort of vague plan that Kane Coggin would knock over Aaron Pill whilst Liam Bastow grabbed some bags of cannabis and run. They couldn’t organise a lift there, they had to arrange a lift with 27-year-old Coggin’s mother.

“Liam Bastow wasn’t properly disguised and didn’t have gloves. They didn’t even have the planning skills to take a bag with them to put their stolen goods in.”

Coggin’s defence barrister Richard Lloyd Smith QC in his summing up, told the jury that the stabbing of Aaron Pill was completely accidental and only happened because the victim unexpectedly put up a struggle.

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Murder accused panicked after stabbing of Aaron Pill, jury told

He said the pair had not anticipated that Aaron Pill would fight back once they got inside because of his small stature.

“As they grabbed each other Kane Coggin has got the scariest knife on the mantlepiece in his right hand and it wraps around the back in a bear hug,” he said.

“You saw it in the slow motion [on CCTV footage] and you see it in the stills. If the plan were that the knife was going in that lad come what may, it would have done there and then. It didn’t.”

He said Coggin’s reaction to the stabbing was pure panic because the plan to scare had gone horrendously wrong and he had made a string of stupid decisions.

“It was deplorable Coggin didn’t get help,” he said “but we’d all like to think we’d do the right thing, but it doesn’t mean that’s what was intended. Just because they didn’t report it doesn’t mean that’s what they intended."