By Janika Ter Ellen
The end of the Scott Guy murder trial is drawing closer, with the Crown having finished its closing statement and the defence now summing up.
The prosecution has painted a picture of a meticulously planned killing motivated by a "deeply embedded bitterness", but the defence says the case lacks hard evidence.
The defence says if Ewen Macdonald, the accused, wanted Mr Guy dead he did not have to lie in wait at the end of dark driveway – he could have just made it look like a farm accident.
But the Crown says Macdonald was not a rational thinker – he burned down an old farm house on his brother-in-law's property, trashed the new home Mr Guy was building with his wife Kylee and branded it with offensive graffiti, all without his own wife's knowledge.
The Crown said it goes much deeper than that, and while Mr Guy may have had a sense of entitlement over his father's farm where the men worked, Macdonald did too, and he saw Mr Guy as a threat.
Prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk reminded the 11 jurors that Macdonald was a keen hunter and a good shot, even at night, but the defence says the jury should not be seduced by the Crown's "false" logic.
The jury was reminded that Macdonald knew Mr Guy had been shot on the morning of the murder before anyone else knew how he died.
But the timing was the focus for the defence – residents in the area estimated they heard gunshots around 5am, which was the same time Macdonald was seen back at his own home, 1.5km from Mr Guy's, starting work.
The defence says the Crown is light on hard evidence and has failed to prove Macdonald is a murderer.
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