Ewen Macdonald was “very distressed and almost incoherent” when he phoned the father of Scott Guy to tell him something had happened to his son.
The early morning phonecall was the first time Bryan Guy was told something had happened to his son - though he thought the incident was farm-related and had no idea his son lay murdered at the end of his driveway.
Macdonald is on trial at the Wellington High Court, accused of murdering his brother-in-law at his Aorangi Rd home on July 8, 2010.
Bryan Guy gave his account of the events the day his son was murdered, telling the court he instantly knew something was “drastically wrong” when he received a phone call from Macdonald at 7:21am on July 8.
“Ewen was very distressed when he rang me. Almost incoherent. He said something along the lines of, ‘Something’s happened to Scott, you had better get down here’ ...That’s about all he got out and he ended the conversation.”
Bryan Guy says particular parts of the phone call resonated.
“The words ‘his face’ stuck with me. I wasn’t sure if Ewen had seen Scott or seen him afterwards,” she says.
After the phone call Bryan Guy says he went straight to the dairy shed, the silage pits and the cottage because he thought Mr Guy had been involved in a machinery-related accident on the farm.
When he saw no one, he drove toward Mr Guy’s house and saw police vehicles.
Tearing up as he recalled the events, Bryan Guy told those in court he was stopped by police, before being given a hug by his son's neighbour and former landlord Bruce Johnstone.
Police officer describes grisly scene
One of the first police officers on the scene of Mr Guy’s murder gave evidence earlier today.
Constable Neil Martin said when he arrived at the farm, he saw the trauma Mr Guy had suffered.
“I went down on one knee and checked for a pulse, I did not locate a pulse. At this point I observed that he had a gaping hole to his throat, that eyes were open, but glazed over,” he told the court.
Mr Martin says he told Mr Guy’s wife, Kylee, that an accident had taken place and that she should remain indoors on the property.
Who said Scott had been shot?
The focus of the trial shifted this morning, to whether it was Macdonald that told onlookers Mr Guy had been shot, when others thought his throat had been slit.
Truck driver David Berry told the jury this morning that when he found Mr Guy’s body in the Aorgani Rd driverway, it appeared his throat had been cut.
“My neighbour has had his bloody throat cut…He’s had this throat cut he’s lying their cold,” he said in the initial emergency call.
Macdonald has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Guy.
The main point of contention in the case is who first floated the notion that Mr Guy had in fact been shot, when his injuries looked as though his throat had been cut with a knife. This was before police had confirmed it was a number of gun shots that killed Mr Guy.
The Crown alleges Macdonald floated the idea because he killed Mr Guy with a gun and was correcting speculation he was killed otherwise.
The defence argues there is no evidence from witnesses that suggests it was Macdonald who first voiced that it was a gunshot that killed Mr Guy. They say it was a female friend of Mr Guy’s wife Kylee.
Mr Berry was the first man on the scene, just after 7am and described in phone calls to police that Mr Guy’s throat had been cut.
He also called fellow neighbour Bruce Johnstone and told him the same thing.
Mr Johnstone, in turn, called Macdonald as the farm’s “first point of call” and told him about the death.
“I told him Scott has had his throat cut. He asked me if I was joking. I said I wasn’t.”
Mr Guy died of a gunshot wound to his throat and had further gunshot wounds to his head and arms. The court was told yesterday that no knife was involved.
Mr Berry says after police arrived, friends and family had gathered at the cordon and there was a suggestion by someone – he cannot remember whom – that Mr Guy had been shot.
The Crown alleges that person was Macdonald who had killed Mr Guy with an over-under, double-barrel shotgun.
Mr Berry could not confirm to the court that it was Macdonald telling people this.
In a statement Mr Berry made to police on the day of the murder, he said he heard the suggestion of Mr Guy being shot from one of Kylee Guy’s friends.
The statement read:
“I heard a person behind me say that Scott had been shot. I thought that was odd because there hadn’t been many people who had been at the scene and had seen Scott.
“I thought the person was quite clearly wrong and I didn’t know why they had come to that conclusion,” Mr Berry’s police statement said.
Macdonald’s lawyer Greg King says the person making the suggestion of Mr Guy being shot couldn’t have been Macdonald, otherwise Mr Berry would have said so.
He says Mr Berry was referring to a female friend of Mr Guy’s wife who was standing behind him at the cordon.
The trial, presided over by Justice Simon France, is expected to take six weeks.
The jury has been reduced to 11 jurors after one of them pulled out this morning.
3 News
source: newshub archive
