Police and ambulance staff today said they doubted David Bain was having a fit, when they canvassed the murder scene where the bodies of his family were found.
Bain is charged with the murder of his father Robin, 58, mother Margaret, 50, sisters Arawa, 19, Laniet, 18 and brother Stephen, 14 on June 20, 1994.
He was found in the Dunedin house with the bodies. It is alleged he shot them with a .22 rifle.
The crown believed Bain faked a fit when the police arrived, while the defence has argued Robin Bain carried out the murders, then committed suicide.
Chief ambulance officer Craig Wombwell said Robin's body felt warmer than the others he checked at the house.
He thought Robin had probably died in the last hour to an hour-and-a-half.
Bain's mother, brother, and sister Laniet felt cooler, and Mr Wombwell thought that their wounds were relatively fresh.
He could not get a pulse from Stephen's neck as there was a T-shirt wrapped around it. Arawa's body was cool, but not cold.
When he saw David Bain in his room he was shivering, but his pulse was normal and his eyelids were flickering.
Bain was not deeply unconscious and not in an active fit, with no signs afterwards of floppiness, he said.
Police officer Leslie Andrew said he had stayed at the doorway of David Bain's room after the police broke into the house.
He saw Bain shaking, then fall backwards.
He pulled him out into a clear space and put him in a recovery position.
He checked his pulse and said he was limp, so he called for assistance from the ambulance officers.
Police Constable Geoff Wyllie said Bain did not move when police asked him to open the front door on their arrival.
He looked through one of the front windows and saw a rifle on the floor and a person's hand.
When he got in, he and Sergeant Murray Stapp, who gave evidence yesterday, found four bodies.
Told there should be six people, they searched and found another room off Margaret's bedroom.
There they found the body of Stephen on the floor, with signs of a struggle in the room.
Four police officers first at the house later received trauma counselling.
The court is not sitting tomorrow, Friday.
Today was the fifth day of the trial in the High Court at Christchurch before Justice Graham Panckhurst and a jury.
