New South Wales woman Wendie-Sue Dent has again been found guilty of the poisoning murder of her Adelaide partner in 2015.
The Supreme Court has previously heard the 64-year-old poisoned David Lawrence at his Morphett Vale home using a lethal dose of prescription medication, including morphine.
Dent was found guilty by a jury in 2020 after a seven-week trial and was sentenced to life in prison, with a non-parole period of 25 years.
But the Court of Criminal Appeal overturned the verdict in February last year, finding the trial judge had not adequately directed the jury about some of the evidence.
Following a second trial by judge alone, Justice Sophie David today found Dent guilty of murder.
In her published reasons, Justice Sophie David rejected the submission that Mr Lawrence had administered the fatal dose himself for pain relief.
Justice David said Mr Lawrence would have been "vulnerable to Ms Dent due to his relationship with her, the fact he was isolated from his friends and family, and given her professed experience as a nurse."
"There was a very high concentration of both morphine and tramadol in his blood," she said.
"If the fatal dose was taken as a single dose, the deceased would need to have consumed about 20 100 milligrams tablets of morphine uncrushed, and four 200 milligrams tablets of tramadol.
"I consider it implausible that he would have unintentionally consumed that number of tablets of opioid drugs."
Justice David said she was satisfied, on the evidence, that Dent gave her partner the drugs with the intention to kill him.
"She had a financial motive to commit the offence because she would benefit significantly from his death … and … in the days preceding his death she was concerned that he was revisiting his will," she said.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged Dent had a "financial motive to murder" her partner.
The Supreme Court heard she had been named as the beneficiary of his superannuation fund, which held approximately $175,000, and she stood to inherit a property valued at about $235,000.
Defence lawyers told the court the prosecution had not established the offence of murder beyond reasonable doubt, and had not been able to prove directly that Dent had administered the fatal dose.
Dent will be sentenced in August.
