Two days after the killing of his family, David Bain told one of his aunts he hated his father, describing him as "sneaky" and saying he listened to conversations that "had nothing to do with him".
Valerie Boyd, a sister of Bain's mother, Margaret, told the High Court in Christchurch yesterday she and David had a conversation lasting about five hours at the home of another sister in Dunedin.
Bain said he could not sleep and started talking about the family situation.
He said his father was not accepting the family did not want him at home, saying "it was his house, his family and he was staying".
"I'd never experienced it before," Mrs Boyd said.
Mrs Boyd told the court Bain had become "quite distressed" talking about Stephen and was concerned the 14-year-old had been shot through the hand.
He said Stephen was "so strong, he fought hard" that he could get very angry but was "a nice lad".
And he described 18-year-old Laniet as "a sweet girl" who was "lost", that he had to come to terms with the fact they were a family of four, with Laniet having gone to live with Robin at Taieri Beach.
Laniet's boyfriend was there too.
And Bain talked about having a party at the house the following Sunday for Arawa's 20th birthday.
When she told him that would be "totally inappropriate" he said he would have it out at the grave site.
But he was arrested on the Friday.
Mrs Boyd also described how Bain would "switch off" during discussions about the funerals whenever anyone disagreed with what he wanted.
"If it wasn't going to be his choice, then he wasn't interested," she said.
He wanted to have the funeral on the Sunday, which was "family day" but was told that was not possible.
And he had decided who would give tributes for each of the family, what colour flowers there would be for each person, what music would be played and what each would wear, down to underwear and jewellery.
He wanted Arawa to wear a particular gown and her super bra.
Bain had chosen the Faure Requiem for his mother which Mrs Boyd thought was appropriate.
He said they had once all discussed what music they would want played at their funeral, apart from Stephen who had not been interested in talking about dying.
The song Bain had chosen for Laniet was Who Wants to Live Forever which Mrs Boyd thought was "completely inappropriate".
She told Mr Raftery Bain had borrowed her husband's rifle over the 1991-92 Christmas holiday when he was going fruit-picking in Central Otago.
He wanted to go rabbit-shooting while he was there.
Bain had kept the rifle "for quite a while".
They had to ask for it back, Mrs Boyd said.
Another witness, Peter Sharplin, told the court about selling Bain a pair of white gloves in early June 1994.
He had not long been working at the suit-hire business when a person he described as "a bit odd, scruffily dressed, tall and gangly probably what we'd call nerdy" came in wanting to buy a pair of white gloves, Mr Sharplin said.
The person had very long hands and the gloves were a stretchy "one size fits all" type.
He identified the buyer as David Bain.
Yesterday's hearing was shortened after one of the jurors did not return to court in the afternoon because of illness.
The trial will continue today, depending on that juror's condition.
