Where manslaughter is left as an alternative to murder, the trial judge must direct the jury that consciousness of guilt evidence may be used to ground an inference of murderous intent only if the jury considers the conduct in fact evidences such intent; a general direction that the evidence is relevant to 'murder' without distinguishing its relevance to the intent element is insufficient. However, not all consciousness of guilt evidence is necessarily neutral as to intent — evidence such as the manner of disposal of a body may be capable of evidencing murderous intent. The degree of likelihood that the jury resorted to consciousness of guilt evidence for intent is assessed by reference to the cogency of the other evidence of intent.
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