The sister of a Feilding farmer who was shot dead in the gateway of his farm says her brother-in-law was crying when she saw him later that day.
Nikki Guy was giving evidence in the High Court at Wellington at the trial of Ewen Macdonald, 32, who has been charged with murdering Scott Guy - his brother-in-law and her brother - on 8 July 2010.
Ms Guy said the family gathered at Macdonald's home and when she saw him there, he was crying and he hugged her and her mother.
When her brother earlier came back from a farming conference in Invercargill he was excited and animated about his plans for the farm, she says.
Unlike previous occasions, Scott wasn't moaning about Mr Macdonald and everything seemed really good between them.
Macdonald insisted Guy was shot
It was a huge shock when her brother-in-law was subsequently arrested for the killing.
Ms Guy said that when her mother telephoned to tell her Scott, 31, was dead she could not believe it.
Initially she thought he had died in his sleep, of natural causes and it didn't enter her head that he might have been killed.
At her brother's property just out of Feilding, the man who found the body said that Scott had been stabbed, but Macdonald insisted he had been shot.
She wondered how Macdonald knew that because he was back behind the police cordon while the other man was first on the scene and had a closer view.
A computer analyst told the court Scott Guy's computer was last used right before 4.41 am on the day of the killing.
Jeremy Fleet, a Telecom analyst said a text was sent from Ewen Macdonald's cellphone to that of Scott Guy at 5.03 a.m. saying 'are you up' and a phone call made at 5.40 am but went Mr Guy's voice mail.
The Crown case is that by the time those two communications took place, Scott Guy was already dead.
