Kayden Moy, 16, died following an incident on Irvine beach on May 17 last year.
A jury in the trial of two teenagers accused of murdering a 16-year-old on a beach in North Ayrshire is set to continue its deliberations for a second day.
Jay Stewart, 18, and a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons are accused of killing Kayden Moy, who died after an incident at Irvine beach on May 17.
Another teenager, 18-year-old Cole Turley, has already pleaded guilty to Kayden’s murder.
It is alleged that while acting with Turley, Stewart and the 15-year-old pursued Kayden, causing him to fall to the ground, and repeatedly stabbed him on the body with a knife, leaving him so badly injured that he died.
A jury at the High Court in Glasgow began its deliberations in the case on Thursday but ended the day without reaching a verdict.
Deliberations are therefore set to resume on Friday.
Giving directions to the jury on Thursday morning, judge Lord Scott told them it was not in dispute that Turley murdered the 16-year-old or that the accused were present on Irvine beach that day.
He told them the “crucial issue” they had to decide was whether the accused were acting in concert with Turley when he carried out the murder.
Giving his closing speech at the High Court in Glasgow on Wednesday, Donald Findlay KC, representing Stewart, told the jury there is “not a scrap of evidence” his client played any part in Kayden’s death.
“The one thing we know beyond a shadow of doubt is that Jay Stewart did not lay a finger on Kayden Moy,” Mr Findlay said.
“He was not within yards of Kayden Moy when Kayden Moy was stabbed. He had no physical involvement whatsoever in the death of Kayden Moy.”
He added: “He did not go near him, he did not offer any kind of protection or security, there is not a single, solitary scrap of evidence that Jay Stewart played any active part in the death of Kayden Moy.”
The court previously heard Turley, Stewart and the 15-year-old were members of the Murray Boys group while Kayden and others were part of the Himshie group in East Kilbride.
Mr Findlay said there had been confrontations between the groups in the past and there was nothing to suggest that day in May last year would be any different until Turley “upped the ante” and produced a knife.
He said there was a confrontation between the groups at the beach but nobody expected it to go further.
Mr Findlay told the court: “There is shouting, exchanges of abuse, but at that point in time it is no more than that, and that’s as far as it should have gone till one event, and that was Cole Turley produced a knife.
“At that point, the character of this changes, but up till that point in time it is no different from any confrontation they have had previously.”
Mr Findlay also told jurors that, according to forensic evidence, there was “not a nanogram” of evidence to show Stewart ever had the knife in his possession.
Ian Duguid KC, representing the 15-year-old, later pointed jurors to evidence from a witness who had told the trial he heard the 15-year-old saying “take us a box” during the initial confrontation at the beach, as in fist-fighting.
Mr Duguid said of the 15-year-old: “He was not thinking it was going to be a stabbing.
“He was thinking it was going to be a fist-fight, the Murrays against the Himshies, something that was not unknown to any of them.”
The lawyer urged jurors to acquit his client if they believe Kayden’s murder could not have been anticipated by the 15-year-old, who was 14 at the time of the fatal incident.
Mr Duguid continued: “He’s 15, it’s important to him, his whole life is ahead of him.”
Prosecutors earlier withdrew all charges against Stewart and the 15-year-old apart from the murder charge, which they both deny.
They previously lodged special defences of incrimination.
The trial continues before Judge Lord Scott.
