Jury Hung On Charges Against Guy Sebastian's Former Manager Titus Day

The embezzlement trial against Titus Day, the former manager of pop musician Guy Sebastian, has come to an end, with jurors acquitting Day of four charges, but remaining deadlocked in regard to the remaining charges.

The trial in the NSW District Court centred around claims that Day had embezzled $620,000 of performance fees from Sebastian between 2013 and 2020.

Day managed Sebastian over a decade, from 2007 to 2017, first via the agency 22 Management and then through his own company, 6 Degrees. They reportedly severed ties on bad terms in 2017, and began civil proceedings in Federal Court shortly thereafter.

Day had initially plead not guilty, though was sentenced to jail for four years in 2022 after being found guilty on 34 of the 47 charges against him. He was later released from jail, and in 2024, his convictions were quashed upon appeal and he was awarded close to $1m in compensation.

As the ABC reports, a retrial began this year, and on July 15th, jurors for the NSW District Court returned a partial verdict, finding Day not guilty on four of the embezzlement counts against him. These charges relate to $114,000 that Day had been accused of misappropriating.

The defence team for Day had reportedly argued that the Crown failed to disprove whether any misapplication of funds was not deliberate but instead a mistake. They also argued that the prosecution was "misconceived" and queried as to why police didn't leave the two men to "battle it out in the Federal Court.”

However, the jury was told to continue deliberating on the remaining counts, and despite Judge Alister Abadee telling jurors they had the option of returning majority 11-1 verdicts, Abadee was told on July 16th that jurors remained deadlocked.

According to the ABC, the case will now return to court to be mentioned, before the Director of Public Prosecutions makes the decision as to whether another retrial is warranted.