A fresh trial date is to be set for the convicted killer and life parolee Dean Wickliffe after the abandonment of his drugs and firearms case in Tauranga District Court on Wednesday.
The judge said the trial could not continue for reasons he suppressed.
Wickliffe is accused of illegally possessing a revolver and bullets, as well as drugs.
Wickliffe, who twice escaped from Auckland's Paremoremo Prison, has spent 30 years in jail after twice being convicted of murder.
The first conviction in 1972 was later downgraded to manslaughter.
His second murder conviction was quashed in 1998 and Wickliffe was acquitted on retrial.
