MONTREAL -- Twelve jurors at Luka Magnotta's murder trial completed its first day of deliberations Tuesday without reaching a verdict.

Deliberation began in the morning after two alternates were excused, one by lottery and one who asked to leave because he wanted to catch a flight out of town.

Some eyebrows were raised earlier when news emerged that Montreal police was billed $26,000 by a psychiatrist named Dr. Joel Watts, after German police requested that a psychiatrist be put on a plane alongside Magnotta returning from Berlin.

The payment police made to Watts was later revised downwards to $17,000

Montreal police representative Ian Lafreniere conceded in a televised interview with the LCN network that the amount might seem high considering that the work done consisted of about 53 hours of labour.

"It was a condition that the Germans made. It was a Saturday morning and we needed to find somebody bilingual, fast," said Lafreniere.

Watts later went on to become a witness for the defence.

Magnotta is charged with first-degree murder and four other charges in the slaying and dismemberment of Chinese engineering student Jun Lin in May 2012.

The eight women and four men officially began their work today to return five unanimous verdicts in the case. In theory, they will be deliberating between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Magnotta has pleaded not guilty by way of mental disorder and is seeking to be found not criminally responsible.

On the murder charge, the jury has four options: find Magnotta guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter, or find him not criminally responsible by way of mental disorder.

The judge told the jurors Monday that if they find the accused not criminally responsible, that verdict must carry through to all five charges.

On the other charges, they must decide simply whether Magnotta is guilty or not guilty.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer suggested they start their work by focusing on the mental disorder defence.

The jurors heard some 66 witnesses over 40 days the trial sat.

They will have to consider hundreds of pages of medical files, expert reports and the physical evidence gathered in Montreal as well as Europe.

-With a file from The Canadian Press