Day nine of the Ewen Macdonald trial finished early today, after the court was read a statement he made across three days in July 2010.

He was spoken to by police on July 22, 23 and 26, for about 19 hours and the statement was read to the court today and yesterday afternoon by Detective Graeme Parsons.

Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Paul Murray, Mr Parsons said samples of shotgun ammunition were taken from Macdonald’s home.

His shoes were also examined.

Mr Parsons told defence lawyer Greg King Macdonald had been co-operative during the interview. 

On what was the ninth day of Macdonald’s murder trial in the High Court at Wellington, the court also heard that he told police he didn’t know Mr Guy had been shot until the day after he died.

This differed from the accounts of other witnesses who have said they heard Macdonald say Mr Guy had been shot on the morning of his death.

Macdonald, 32, is accused of gunning down Mr Guy, his brother-in-law, at 4.43am on Thursday July 8, 2010, at the gates of Mr Guy’s Aorangi Rd property in rural Feilding.

The defence says Macdonald is not the killer.

A DVD interview with Macdonald after he was arrested in April was expected to be played to the court today, but will now show on Monday.

12:15pm: The morning Scott Guy was shot, Ewen Macdonald wondered if the death was a case of mistaken identity.

 "I said shit, was it meant for me," he told police in a statement made in late July 2010.

It was read to the court by police Detective Graeme Parsons on day nine of Ewen Kerry Macdonald’s murder trial in the High Court at Wellington today.

Macdonald, 32, is accused of gunning down Mr Guy, his brother-in-law, at 4.43am on Thursday July 8, 2010, at the gates of Mr Guy’s Aorangi Rd property in rural Feilding.

The defence says Macdonald is not the killer

The court has heard that Macdonald thought he might have been the target because of his past involvement in illegal poaching activity.

He was also asked if anyone else might have a grudge against Mr Guy or the family.

The only things Macdonald could think of were Scott Guy’s father Bryan’s involvement in the merger of the Tui and Kiwi dairy companies, and "a Fijian guy" who went out with Scott’s sister Nikki for a while.

Macdonald said he and his wife Anna thought the man was no good for Nikki and had one night told him he wasn’t welcome at their house when he came around with Nikki to babysit.

When he was drunk in town one night, someone had heard the man saying Ewen and Anna Macdonald were trying to break him and Nikki up.

The day after Mr Guy died, Macdonald went to feed some labrador puppies Scott and wife Kylee Guy were breeding.

"I noticed there was only four puppies… Everyone said there should have been seven so I knew there was a problem."

He also recalled a policeman saying on July 8, 2010, that the death had to happen at the end of his shift.

"I recall thinking you arsehole," Macdonald said.

Macdonald made a statement in late July 2010 that contradicted what other witnesses have said in court.

They heard Macdonald saying Mr Guy had been shot at the crime scene.

Mr Guy’s sister Nikki had said she remembered Macdonald arguing with the man who had found the body, David Berry, about the cause of death. Mr Berry said Mr Guy had been stabbed.

Macdonald’s statement was read to the court by police Detective Graeme Parsons on day nine of Ewen Kerry Macdonald’s murder trial in the High Court at Wellington today.

Macdonald, 32, is accused of gunning down Mr Guy, his brother-in-law, at 4.43am on Thursday July 8, 2010, at the gates of Mr Guy’s Aorangi Rd property in rural Feilding.

The defence says Macdonald is not the killer.

Macdonald said he didn’t know how Mr Guy had died until July 9.

"The first time I knew for sure that the information about Scott’s throat being cut was wrong was after Bryan [Guy] talked to police on Friday."

Even on July 8, Bryan Guy had doubted his son’s throat being slit and said as much to his wife Jo when she said that was awful.

"I recall Bryan saying, nah, I think he’s been shot. He also questioned me but I told him I had not got close enough to tell," Macdonald said.

When he arrived at the crime scene he got to within six or seven meters of Mr Guy’s body before being told by police to get back.

"I could see obvious blood around Scott’s head area. It was very obvious he was dead. He looked limp and flat."

When he was gunned down on July 8, 2010, Mr Guy’s first son Hunter was two years old.

Drover was not born until September.

Between June 20 and 24, Mr Guy and Ewen Macdonald attended a dairy farming conference in Invercargill together.

Macdonald told police about this in late July 2010 as he gave a formal written statement.

It was read to the court by police Detective Graeme Parsons on day nine of Ewen Kerry Macdonald’s murder trial in the High Court at Wellington today.

Macdonald, 32, is accused of gunning down Mr Guy, his brother-in-law, at 4.43am on July 8, 2010, at the gates of Mr Guy’s Aorangi Rd property in rural Feilding.

The defence says Macdonald is not the killer.

"This was the first time I’d been away with Scott for a long time," Macdonald said of the conference.

"The trip went well. We had a number of talks about how the farm was going and what we wanted to achieve."

Macdonald and Mr Guy shared ideas about the farm and were "both on the same page" - talking about how to improve the way the business ran and thinking about managing other farms.

"In terms of personal stuff we talked about his and [wife] Kylee’s up coming baby. They knew it was going to be a boy."

The pair talked about baby names and Macdonald said Mr Guy would have to get another tattoo to go with his "Hunter" one.

"We both came back on a bit of a high," Macdonald said.

10.20am: Days after Scott Guy was shot, Ewen Macdonald told police he hadn't used a gun since May 2010.

Macdonald made his statement to police over three days in late July 2010. He signed it on July 26.

It was read to the court by police Detective Graeme Parsons on day nine of Macdonald's murder trial in the High Court at Wellington today.

Macdonald, 32, is accused of gunning down Mr Guy, his brother-in-law, at 4.43am on July 8, 2010, at the gates of Mr Guy's Aorangi Rd property in rural Feilding. He has pleaded not guilty.

"The last time I had anything to do with firearms was this morning, putting down a cow," Macdonald said.

"Prior to this was in about May this year - putting down some cows."

Before that, he and former farm worker Callum Boe went hunting near Waiouru in March 2009.

At the time of Mr Guy's death, he owned one rifle.

"Since Scott's death I have put my riffle into Bryan [Guy's] gun safe... this is a more sturdy safe."

Macdonald said he didn't have a key to the safe and didn't know where the key was kept until he stored his gun there.

He also said he did not know where Bryan Guy kept his ammunition.

10.08am: Day 9 of the Ewen Macdonald murder trial has begun, with the accused's statement to police being read to the jury.

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