The Crown has made its opening address at the trial of Ewen Macdonald who is accused of murdering brother-in-law Scott Guy in 2010.
Macdonald, 32, pleaded not guilty to the murder charge in the jury trial presided over by Justice Simon France.
Macdonald is accused of killing Scott Guy, who was found shot dead on his Aorangi Road driveway in Feilding on the morning of July 8 2010.
Crown Prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk says Macdonald tried to "rattle" Scott and his wife Kylee in the years leading up to death because he didn’t like the direction the family farm was taking.
He says Macdonald, married to Mr Guy’s sister Anna, had tensions over Scott returning to the farm and wanting to inherit it.
Mr Vanderkolk says Mr Guy’s supposed ‘sense of entitlement’ didn’t sit well with Macdonald and they “fermented and stewed” in his mind.
“[Macdonald] went about a course of conduct to rattle Kylee to drive them off the farm,” says Mr Vanderkolk.
These included leaving notes in their letterbox, spray painting offensive words on their newly built house, vandalising the house with an axe, damaging plumbing and windows, and setting fire to an old farmstead.
The Crown says there were three notes, one saying “Stay away from him Kylee, you whore”, the second saying “You cheating whore, what comes around goes around” and the third, after their new house was attacked, saying “Now you know how it feels to lose something you love”.
Macdonald also allegedly painted a note on the house saying “F**ken whore, f**ken bitch-slapper”.
Other things the prosecution say rattled Macdonald was Mr Guy being given more responsibility of the farm’s finances and wanting to subdivide and develop a recreational lake.
The pair had an “explosive” disagreement in early 2010 after Macdonald allegedly said Mr Guy was not pulling his weight on the farm. The prosecution wouldn’t elaborate on the argument, simply saying it was “heated”.
Mr Vanderkolk says Macdonald was dairy-focussed whereas Mr Guy was project-focussed and “constantly coming up with new ideas, innovative or fanciful”.
He says the farm had won two awards for the quality of its milk but Ewen stubbornly declined to go to the awards ceremony.
The awards ceremony was scheduled for the night of July 8. Mr Guy was killed that morning.
The Crown says Macdonald’s gumboot impressions were found at the scene and they followed the trail back to a woolshed on the farm.
One of the gumboot impressions was filled with Mr Guy’s blood, they say.
They also say Macdonald was telling people at the scene that Mr Guy has been shot, even though his injuries looked like he had been stabbed.
The defence is introducing its case this afternoon before evidence is presented by the prosecution.
3 News
source: newshub archive
