Scott Guy's brother-in-law Ewen Macdonald, 32, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Guy by shooting him twice in the early morning of July 8, 2010.

Crown prosecutors Ben Vanderkolk and Paul Murray are prosecuting. Criminal lawyer Greg King is representing Macdonald. Manawatu barrister Peter Coles is also part of the defence.

The trial began at the High Court in Wellington on Tuesday June 5 and is expected to go for at least a month.

The second week of the trial is focusing on the relationship between Guy and Macdonald.

LIVE UPDATES FROM COURT

5.10pm Macdonald said he did not know about obsence notes left for Kylee

Ewen Macdonald told police he was at home the night of the arson of the house on Scott and Kylee's property.

During a second police interview that lasted several days Macdonald said he was not working that weekend and had been looking to have a sleep in.

Macdonald had thought it was a bunch of kids that had been hanging around.

He said he had driven a friend up to Ruakaka the weekend the house was supposed to be vandalised and obscene words spraypainted on Scott and Kylee's new home.

Macdonald drove back after talking to Kylee, who was worried about being there alone.

He got back to find Callum Guy had stayed the night with a friend.

He saw a smashed back door and windows and writing on the walls.

Kids were blamed for it. Macdonald claimed he had no knowledge of notes left for Kylee in a letterbox and said the first time he had heard about it was when the police mentioned it to him.

After the incidents Scott bought a pump-action shotgun for security and set up alarms.

He told police he had never heard anyone saying they had seen cannabis on the farm.

"As far as I am concerned the rumours I've heard about Scott getting rid of cannabis was rubbish.''

4.42pm Scott Guy believed Macdonald should work for him

Scott Guy told a family meeting he should inherit the farm and Ewen Macdonald should work for him.

Ewen Macdonald told Detective Graeme Parsons in an interview that it came out of the blue.

Scott called a meeting to work through goals for the farm and Macdonald said he became aware how unhappy Scott was that Anna and Macdonald were buying the family homestead off Bryan and Jo Guy.

He wanted the farm passed down to him as the eldest son and thought that Macdonald should work for him.

"He said something like Anna did not deserve the opportunity as she had not worked on the farm."

Macdonald said Bryan Guy was quick to say they should work together. "I was conscious that he was the son and I was the brother in law."

He said it looked like Scott realised he could not have the farm to himself.

It appeared to Macdonald that Kylee had influenced Scott’s thinking.   

He said after there had been no more tense meetings.

Changes to the rosters and wages also came out of the meeting and Macdonald said it appeared everyone was happy with it.

He thought Scott and Kylee were competitive with him and Anna over issues like the house.

"Nothing major, just normal family issues."

Macdonald also said there had been one other issue between him and Scott over attending a family event.

He said he stayed to help the farm workers and ended up being grumpy about it.

Macdonald said he was late to the function and Scott made some comment about it and "I gave him a burst about leaving before the work was done and he should pull his weight".

Scott got angry and stormed off.

Macdonald said he apologised the next day.

4.30pm: A farm worker had a crush on Scott Guy

Ewen Macdonald could not recall anyone showing romantic interest in Scott or Kylee outside their relationship.

He spoke for several days to Detective Graeme Parsons and was asked to think about any entanglements outside Scott and Kylee’s marriage.

He said he could not although one farm worker had had a low level crush on Scott.

Macdonald told the police about getting a text from Scott to say Kylee had said yes to his proposal when he asked her then Kylee moved to Feilding.

He said Kylee seemed quiet and shy and they did not have a lot to do with her initially.

Macdonald remembered Kylee and Nikki Guy had a falling out after Nikki was supposed to have bad mouthed her and since then they had a “polite” relationship.

Once Scott and Kylee had their son Hunter, she got involved more with the family.

He said they both seemed happy and have a strong relationship and there were no marriage issues.

Macdonald told police Scott took over the dry stock responsibilities on the farm when he came back from overseas.

He said once that happened he was able to concentrate on the milking operation, which could milk up to 600 cows.

4.18pm: Scott Guy encouraged Macdonald to marry his sister

Scott Guy encouraged Ewen Macdonald to marry his sister while they were flatting together.

During a police interview on July 22, 2010, Ewen Macdonald said he played rugby briefly with Scott. He outlined a number of girlfriends Scott had.

Macdonald said he and Scott would surf and bodyboard together and go spotting possums.

He said they had a lot to do with each other and there were no issues.

He got engaged to Anna while he was still flatting with Scott.

"He encouraged me to go ahead, and said I had been hanging around long enough and were made for each other."

When Scott went overseas, Macdonald and Anna moved into the house together.

4.13pm: Guy family very supportive - Macdonald

Ewen Macdonald told police he was drawn to the Guy family, which had a nice supportive atmosphere.

Detective Graeme Parsons spoke to Macdonald again on July 22 and the interview took place over three days.

He described meeting Anna and going to work on the farm, and meeting Scott Guy at school.

He said the Guy family was very supportive, doing things like going to church and going to Sunday lunch together.

Macdonald said he lived with Scott Guy in Aorangi Rd at a flat for about a year and a half and they got on well.

He said Mr Guy was a good flatmate, doing renovations and he was not messy.

Mr Parsons had also talked to Ewen Macdonald on July 15 saying he was interested in dive boots that Callum Guy thought he had left in the garage of the Aorangi Rd property.

Macdonald showed them to him and they were photographed.

They were not the same brand as the Crown alleged Macdonald owned.

3.29pm: Fifteen items of footwear photographed

All the footwear belonging to Ewen Macdonald at his home was a size 9.

Detective Graeme Parsons spoke with Ewen Macdonald by phone about viewing footwear at his home on July 12.

He said he wanted to view Macdonald's footwear on the day of the shooting and also wanted to examine any footwear.

Mr Parsons said he wanted to see the farm roster too.

At the Macdonald's home he told Macdonald and his wife Anna, the police wanted to photograph footwear Macdonald was wearing and was told the gumboots were at Bryan Guy's home.

Mr Parsons told him police were looking into footwear marks at Scott Guy's home.

Fifteen items of footwear from the house were brought outside and photographed.

The Crown has told the jury that a pair of size nine proline diving boots made prints at the scene and they had been Macdonald's.

3.12pm: Police told Macdonald not to get close to body

It was police who told Ewen Macdonald not to get close to Scott Guy's body at the scene, he said in his first police interview.

He told police he dropped everything to go to the end of Mr Guy's driveway when Bruce Johnstone rang him to tell him Mr Guy was dead.

He said when he arrived he could see Mr Guy lying in front of his ute.

Senior Constable Terry Moore said Macdonald told him that he went to go to Mr Guy but the police told him not to.

Macdonald said he was worried about Kylee Guy and Hunter who were still in the house.

He also said he wondered if it had been meant for him.

He said he was away when the attack on Scott and Kylee Guy's home was made.

3.07pm: Macdonald thought Scott Guy had slept in

In his first interview to police Ewen Macdonald explained that to begin milking he had to be up at 4.45am and that he and Mr Guy had a roster for doing the early start.

He said the night before he got a text from Mr Guy confirming he would do the early start.

Macdonald said he woke to the alarm at 4.50am and had not heard the quad bikes arrive.

He said he thought that Mr Guy had slept in which he did "on the odd occasion".

He said he commented to one of the workers about Scott sleeping in.

Macdonald said he sent a text to Mr Guy which said "R U Up?"

He said he was not worried about Mr Guy as he had enough workers to do the milking.

He got no answer when he called his cellphone a bit later.

Macdonald had not wanted to call his landline because Kylee Guy was pregnant and the phone was by the bed.

2.55pm: Macdonald interview to be read in court

Police interviewed Macdonald over five and a half hours the day after Mr Guy was shot.

Senior constable Terry Moore did the interview at the Palmerston North police station.

He is to read the interview to the jury.

1.15pm: Suspect involved in shotgun crimes

A "fair amount of work" was done on one particular suspect involved in burglaries and methamphetamine in the Manawatu area.

Officer in charge of the suspect list Detective Sergeant David Thompson was extensively questioned about the man, whose name is suppressed, by defence lawyer Peter Coles.

He agreed that a lot of information had come into the inquiry team that the man was someone they should be looking at.

The man was also involved in crimes involving shotguns.

12.39pm: 'Rough-looking' man never found

Neighbour David Berry had seen a rough-looking man smelling of alcohol and cigarettes looking for Scott Guy in the days before the shooting but he was never found.

Mr Berry had told the court about it when he gave his evidence last week saying the man had come to his house looking for Scott.

Under cross-examination Mr Thompson admitted to defence lawyer Peter Coles that man had never been found.

Police had also not identified a car in a river that Scott Guy made a 111 call to police about on July 4. 

Mr Thompson told Mr Coles there had been 181 burglaries in the area in the period leading up to the murder and seven of them involved the theft of firearms and 800 rounds of ammunition.

Mr Thompson said he was unable to say what shotguns and ammunition were recovered.

10.44am: Cannabis crop speculation investigated

Speculation about Scott Guy finding a crop of cannabis on the family farm and being murdered as a result was investigated by police.

Police spoke to all farm workers, ex-workers, family and general farm contractors from the farm. Mr Thompson said two small amounts of cannabis were found, a couple of small plants and a small amount in a cottage but they were minor.

The officer in charge of the annual aerial cannabis recovery operation in Manawatu was asked about any cannabis plot but nothing came up.

Police also cleared 60 people as suspects after they had been mentioned through tiplines.

Police checked alibis and to see if the tipoff was credible and if the information had any substance.

10.28am: Suspects ruled out during investigation

Suspects were identified and ruled out by the police team investigating the shooting with tipoffs coming from members of the public.

Police ran down alibis for names mentioned, including that some were unable to have killed Scott Guy because they were committing other crimes.

He said because police were checking where people were, others were charged with crimes unrelated to the murder investigation.

Eleven unrelated burglaries were solved during the inquiry.

10.22am: Missing Labrador puppies investigated

Three missing chocolate Labrador puppies on the Guy farm raised the possibility Scott Guy had been killed as a burglary or theft gone wrong.

Officer in charge of the suspects for the Scott Guy investigation, Detective Sergeant David Thompson, said he received the information five days after the fatal shooting.

Police investigated burglaries in the area to see if there was a trend but were unable to find one or a connection to Mr Guy being killed.

"Nothing stood out,'' he said.

Mr Thompson is outlining to the jury the phases of the investigation including suspects identified.

He said the suspect pool was split into family, workers, persons of interest and possible burglars.

Day 7: Live coverage

Day 6: Live coverage

Day 5: Live coverage

Day 4: Live coverage

Day 3: Live coverage

Day 2: Live coverage

Day 1: Live coverage

Summary of day seven

Ewen Macdonald broke down in tears as his wife, Anna, told a jury their life had never been more perfect on the day before Scott Guy was shot dead.

Macdonald has shown little, if any, emotion since his murder trial began in the High Court in Wellington last week, preferring instead to keep his head down and scribble on a piece of paper.

But there was no hiding his emotion yesterday when his lawyer, Greg King, put it to Anna Macdonald that their lives had never been better on July 7, 2010 – the day before Mr Guy died outside his rural Feilding home.

Mrs Macdonald agreed. The farm they co-owned was performing well, they had been on a relaxing holiday to Fiji, her husband was spending more time at home with their young children, and, most importantly, he was beginning to mend the tattered working relationship with his brother-in-law, Scott Guy.

"We were all in a really good place," Mrs Macdonald said, the absence of a wedding ring noticeable as she wiped away tears.

Disagreements between her husband and brother over how the Guy family dairy farm, called Byreburn, was run were under the microscope again yesterday, as the Crown continued to establish the motive for the killing.

Mrs Macdonald said she had reservations about the "three couples" going into business together when her parents, Bryan and Jo, gave 10 per cent shareholdings in Byreburn to her and Macdonald, as well as Scott and Kylee Guy, in 2008.

"I wasn't so sure because I don't think three's a great number. Two's company, three's a crowd," she said.

Her husband was already "wound up" at Mr Guy for not rearing calves to his high standard and working fewer hours, she said. He also felt Mr Guy's hourly wage was earning him more than Macdonald's annual salary.

The issue came to a head at a meeting of the farm managers just before the transfer of shares in 2008, when Scott Guy raised "harsh criticisms" about the way the farm was being run.

Bryan Guy told the court his son was upset he had given the Macdonalds a $250,000 loan to buy the Byreburn farm homestead, when Scott and Kylee Guy were stuck renting a house up the road.

"That was quite a shock to us," Mr Guy said.

Kylee Guy also wiped tears from her eyes as she gave evidence yesterday. The names of her dead husband and young sons Hunter, 4, and Drover, 1, are now tattooed on the inside of her arm.

During questioning about Macdonald, she was heard mumbling under her breath that she did not like saying "his" name.

Ms Guy said her husband found it frustrating when Macdonald would "just laugh off" concerns he had about the farm.

"He [Scott] was trying to be positive, but he ended up just giving up," she said.

"He was a real softie. He didn't want to upset anyone."

Later in the day, Mrs Macdonald was also questioned about whether her husband had ever owned dive boots.

The Crown has said Macdonald was wearing dive boots when he carried out the murder.

Mrs Macdonald said her husband had owned a pair, but she threw them out in 2008.

The trial continues today.

- © Fairfax NZ News