A recap of key evidence from the third week of Ewen Macdonald's murder trial:

Macdonald's police interview

Scott Guy's murder in July 2010 wasn't the first crime committed at 293 Aorangi Rd. On the night of October 24, 2008, an old farmhouse loaded on trailers ready for removal was destroyed by fire. And overnight on January 30, 2009, the inside of Scott and Kylee Guy's partially-built house was vandalised and vulgar messages scrawled on the outside. By early last year, those crimes were unsolved.

When Macdonald was taken in by police for questioning on April 7 last year, he was asked about something his father had said. Kerry Macdonald reckoned whoever was responsible for the arson and the damage was the murderer. Macdonald agreed.

A recording of the interview was played to the jury for about four hours on Monday and Tuesday.

At first, Macdonald fended off the questions of Detectives Glen Jackson and Laurie Howell, who kept asking him where he was on the nights of the fire, vandalism, and a night in December 2006 when two deer were stolen from a Colyton farm.

Macdonald seemed relaxed and chatty, often leaning back to stretch and making no attempts to suppress the occasional yawn.

He was probably at home when the deer were stolen, he said, and had slept through the night of the fire.

When the house was damaged, he was up north with former farm worker Callum Boe, he said.

"Why would I do it?" Macdonald asked about the vandalism.

"It was part of the farm. It was going to help Scott and Kylee get their dream home."

But things changed a couple of hours into the interview. Detective Howell said he had a statement that Mr Boe made to police, and asked Macdonald what he thought it said. "That he had nothing to do with it," Macdonald replied.

"He didn't say that. What do you think he said?"

"That he was probably involved."

Macdonald then admitted the deer theft, arson and vandalism.

But what about his father's theory?

"I'm not the murderer," he said.

"I can see the finger points at me but I'm not that blimmin' psycho."

Macdonald confronted by his wife

While he was in Manawatu Prison, Anna Macdonald asked her husband if he killed Mr Guy, her brother.

"He said, `No, I swear I didn't'."

Macdonald told her the arson was "for fun", but that he was annoyed when he wrote the graffiti.

"He said [the graffiti] was more directed at Kylee than Scott because he thought Kylee kind of wound up Scott a little bit."

Macdonald told his wife he felt bad after that, and made an effort to be nice to the Guys, including buying Kylee a birthday gift and organising a kaumatua to bless their new house. He also spent more time with their own children. "At the time I remember thinking, gosh, he's great," Mrs Macdonald said. Now, she is wondering why he bottled up his feelings. "If I felt cross or upset, I would have said. I just thought between a husband and wife that's what you did."

Puppies

The night Mr Guy was shot, three puppies were taken from an old woolshed on his property.

The Crown says the killer took them to make the killing look like a burglary gone wrong. Footprints belonging to a pair of size 9 dive boots were found around the shed and where Mr Guy was shot. The puppies were never recovered.

On July 9, 2010, it was Macdonald who discovered the puppies were missing. He told a scene guard three were unaccounted for, from a litter of seven. Macdonald then phoned Detective Sergeant Garry Milligan. "He said there were supposed to be seven. Originally, there were eight in the litter but one had died," Mr Milligan said.

The Crown says Macdonald should have thought there were eight. The Crown case is almost over and will likely finish at some stage next week. Defence lawyer Greg King will let the jury know if he will call any evidence. Trial continues, page 2

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