A jury retired for more than four hours and failed to arrive at a verdict in the case of 22-year-old Alecia Samuels, dancer, of Arnett Gardens, Kingston 12, who is charged with the murder of 20-year-old dancer Sheree McKnight of Tivoli Gardens, west Kingston.

Defence lawyer Peter Cham-pagnie asked Supreme Court judge Ingrid Mangatal to grant Samuels bail and the judge granted the request.

Samuels, who is also called 'Mumzel', is a member of the Swizzle Body Dance Crew. She is to return to the HomeCircuit Court on June 21 when another trial date will be set.

The Crown led evidence at the trial, which began last week Wednesday and ended late Monday night, that on November 21, 2007, Samuels got into a fight with McKnight outside the Quad nightclub in New Kingston. It was alleged that they were fighting over a male dancer called 'Chicken and Beer'.

During the fight, Samuels was stabbed in the back. Evidence was given that Samuels went across the road and stabbed McKnight in the chest. She was rushed to the University Hospital and died three days later.

Samuels said in her defence that she was attacked and she acted in self-defence. She said during the incident one of her friends was injured by the deceased.

Champagnie, in cross-examining the Crown witnesses who were from Tivoli Gardens, suggested to them that because they were motivated by politics they were lying as to how the incident took place, but they denied the suggestion.