By Lloyd Burr and Angela Beswick
Feilding farmer Scott Guy was likely shot twice with a shot gun, at close range, the court has heard.
Giving evidence at the High Court in Wellington this afternoon, forensic firearm examiner Kevan Walsh said Mr Guy was hit by the first shot while in an upright position, followed by another shot as he was falling backwards.
The first shot was likely made from between 3.5 and 4.5 metres, but Mr Walsh said he couldn’t make an estimate on the second shot.
Mr Walsh, the Crown’s final witness in its case against alleged murderer Ewen Macdonald, told the court the initial shot hit his chin and scattered downwards, creating a 13cm gash in his neck. As Mr Guy fell, the murderer fired again.
“In my opinion, he has to be falling backwards when that second shot has struck his face and arm,” Mr Walsh told the court.
Mr Walsh told the court the ammunition used to kill Mr Guy cannot be traced to the shotgun it was fired from.
“There is no way of collecting lead pellets fired from a shotgun and finding out if there were fired from a particular shotgun,” he told the High Court in Wellington. “It’s not feasible, it can’t be done.”
Mr Walsh carried out tests with the farm’s shotgun in his laboratory, along with a number of other guns to come to his conclusion.
He ruled out the idea that the shotgun may have been within reach of Mr Guy at the time of the murder.
"There is too great a distance between Mr Guy and the barrel of the shotgun, so that would be beyond his reach."
Shotgun ammunition consists of a plastic cartridge which houses a plastic wadding. Inside the wadding are hundreds of small lead pellets – or shots – which are discharged when the trigger is pulled.
Police armourer Robert Ngamoki told court this morning he had examined the farm shotgun and confirmed the cartridges had to have been manually removed. They did not eject automatically.
No cartridges were found at the murder scene, although two plastic wadding cases were – one a few metres from Mr Guy’s body and one lodged in his throat.
The Crown has called 80 witnesses over the last three-and-a-half weeks to give evidence, as it builds its case against Ewen Macdonald.
Macdonald has admitted to three acts of intimidation directed at Mr Guy and his wife Kylee, but denies he killed his brother-in-law.
Ewen Macdonald Police interviews
The defence is yet to announce just who, or how many witnesses they may call, once the Crown wraps up its case later today.
3 News
source: newshub archive
