A friend of a murder-accused was asked by her to keep a rifle at his house a few weeks after Dale Watene was killed and days before police searched her house.
Sandy Maree Graham (32) is charged with murdering Mr Watene at Otautau on April 16, 2020.
George Ivor Hyde (24) is charged with accessory after the fact to murder at Otautau between April 16 and 27, 2020.
Mr Watene’s body was found in the Longwood Forest buried in a shallow grave about a month after he went missing.
On Monday defence lawyer for Graham, Sarah Saunderson-Warner, said Mr Watene had been shot, but it was neither done on purpose nor with murderous intent.
When questioned by Crown solicitor Mary-Jane Thomas yesterday, Craig Braven, a friend and former partner of Graham, said she had first showed him a .22 Ruger rifle hidden behind a mirror in her bedroom before a camping trip during the Christmas break in 2019.
"I looked at it and it had the safety was off and it had a magazine in it and was full of ammo," he said.
He went "off his head" at her for having a three-quarter loaded gun sitting in her bedroom. He told her if one of her children got it, all they would have to do is pull the lever and it would be ready to go, he said.
The rifle was taken on a Christmas camping trip, but when Graham broke her collar bone while on holiday, Mr Braven took the rifle and ammunition back to his house and locked it in his gun safe, he said.
He returned the rifle to Graham after they had a falling out in January, 2020.
At the start of May, 2020, just before police did a forensic investigation of the house, Graham contacted Mr Braven to see if he would take the gun and keep it safe.
The reason she gave for wanting it taken away was because she was looking after another child who was "snoopy", he said.
When he suggested she give to another friend, Geoff Miller, she told him he was away.
He eventually went around to her house, picked up the rifle, ammunition, magazine and a gun cleaning kit, took it home and put it all in his gun safe.
A few days later Mr Miller came and collected the items.
Under cross-examination by Graham’s defence lawyer Philip Shamy, Mr Braven admitted he did not check the rifle’s breach when he collected it from Graham’s house at the beginning of May despite checking it every time he had seen it previously.
Mr Shamy asked about how often he had been on hunting trips with Graham.
"I only ever went for two hunts [with her]."
Hyde’s defence lawyer Fiona Guy Kidd also cross-examined Mr Braven, asking him about Graham’s demeanour before she was sentenced for a drink-driving offence in August 2019.
"She kept saying to you that she wasn’t going to go to jail and it was almost like she was suicidal, you said," Mrs Guy Kidd said.
"That’s right," Mr Braven replied.
She had concerns that she might lose her children if she went to jail.
Mr Braven that while drinking at Graham’s house on April 18, 2020, a dog fight had taken place in the lounge.
He believed there was only droplets of blood left in the lounge as a result of the fight.
After further questioning by Mr Shamy he said there had been a trail of blood through the hallway when the owner of one of the dogs took the injured dog through the hallway and out the front door.
Two more witnesses gave evidence yesterday; however, Justice Nation made an interim suppression of their evidence.
The trial continues today.
