Nai Yin Xue, angry his wife Anan Liu had left him, bought an axe and took it with him to Wellington in an attempt to get her to return home, the Auckland District Court has heard.
Xue is charged with murdering his wife Anan Liu in September last year.
Her body was found four days later in the boot of a car outside their home in the Auckland suburb of Mt Roskill.
Xue became the centre of an international manhunt after his three-year-old daughter Qian Xun Xue was found alone at a Melbourne railway station on September 15 last year.
Xue fled to Los Angeles and was on the run until February 28, when captured in Chamblee, a town on the northeast outskirts of Atlanta, by six Chinese Americans who recognised him from a newspaper.
A depositions hearing is being held to determine whether Xue will face trial over the murder of his wife.
The Crown alleges Ms Liu was strangled with a yellow tie either on the evening of September 11 or morning of September 12 after a period of domestic violence by Xue.
A language school teacher, whose name suppression will be reviewed later, who had known Xue for about three months before Ms Liu was killed, said he told her about the axe after she saw it in his car.
Xue told her he had bought it after his wife had left him, he had not been happy and wanted to use it to make her to return from Wellington where she had taken their daughter to stay, she said.
Xue said his wife was lucky because he had not been able to find her in Wellington when he had the axe, despite breaking into a house where he thought she was staying.
Xue told her he had been chased from the property by a man with a gun.
Xue told her it may have been God's will that Ms Liu should not die and they were meant to be together.
The woman asked for Xue to give the axe to her, saying he did not need it any more.
Xue replied "no problems, we are doing well now. I'm not going to hurt her with the axe".
The woman said Xue confided in her that while Ms Liu had returned to him he thought she may not live with him.
"Xue felt his wife was lying to him all along.
"After the wife came back he was really nice to her but she wasn't very sincere towards him."
Xue told the woman he wanted another child but his wife was not as interested.
He also questioned her relationship with the landlord Ms Liu rented a room from in Wellington, saying it seemed strange she had been able to stay down there for the six weeks with very little money and supplies.
Xue told her when he went to Wellington and searched all the rooms she was not there, he questioned whether she was living with the landlord in his room.
The hearing continues.
