Anna Macdonald felt the same as everyone else after her husband, Ewen, was arrested for crimes against her brother Scott Guy – she wanted answers.

So when she was able to see her husband after his arrest, she put some questions to him.

"I had a lot of questions about why things happened and how he felt," Mrs Macdonald told the High Court at Wellington yesterday.

"Obviously I didn't know, so I said to him why did you do this? How could you hate someone to do what you did with the arson and the graffiti?"

His answer was that he did not hate Mr Guy and his wife Kylee. "It was just a bit of fun really, and to annoy them," he told her.

It was her third time on the witness stand at Macdonald's trial for the murder of Mr Guy in July 2010. He denies murder, but has admitted an earlier arson attack on Mr Guy's old house, vandalism of his new house, and the theft of two deer from a nearby farm.

Mrs Macdonald said she noticed a change in her husband's behaviour after the old farmhouse on Mr Guy's property was set alight in October 2008.

The jury also heard evidence yesterday suggesting that he knew more than he should have about three chocolate labrador puppies that disappeared from Mr Guy's farm about the time he was shot.

The pups were from a litter of eight from Mr Guy's labrador Katie. One had been given away two days before the murder and the rest were living in a shed about 80 metres from Mr Guy's house.

Macdonald fed the dogs the day after the killing and told police scene guard Brian Reynolds that "the pups seemed OK but there should have been seven".

Mr Reynolds passed the information on to Detective Sergeant Gary Milligan. About seven minutes later, Macdonald phoned Mr Milligan to correct what he said. "He advised me ... it was a litter of eight but one had died," Mr Milligan told the court.

The evidence is crucial to the Crown case because it alleges Macdonald had no knowledge one of the pups had been given away before the murder, and would only have known that seven were supposed to be in the shed if he had killed them to lay a false trail. The missing puppies have never been found.

Macdonald also had no reason to tell police one of the pups had died, as Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk said in his opening statement.

Mr Guy's sister Nikki said Macdonald came home in an "animated state" after feeding the puppies the day after the killing, believing the missing pups could be a clue to the murder.

Mr Guy's widow Kylee also gave evidence about the puppies, saying she and her husband gave one to her close friend, Joanne Moss, and planned to sell the rest.

She could not recall that Macdonald ever visited the puppies.

Mr Guy's father Bryan said he visited his son the day before he died, to see the cowshed he had modified into a home for the puppies.

He shed a tear as he recounted the last words he spoke to his son. "The last thing I said to Scott was, `I'll see you in the morning."'

The trial continues today.

THE CASE

Ewen Kerry Macdonald, 32, is accused of murdering his brother-in-law Scott Guy, 31, outside his rural home in Aorangi Rd, Feilding, on July 8, 2010.

The Crown says Macdonald shot Mr Guy twice, at close range, with a double-barrelled shotgun at 4.43a

m then rode a bicycle about 1.4km down the road to Byreburn farm, where he and Mr Guy were expected for milking. Macdonald has admitted setting fire to an old farmhouse on Mr Guy's property in October 2008, damaging his house with an axe and painting offensive graffiti on its walls in January 2009, but denies murder.

- © Fairfax NZ News