When David Bain's uncle visited him in Dunedin prison a week after five of the family had been shot he asked his nephew if he had done it.
Bain replied he had given his side of the story to the police and was ''sticking to that''.
Michael Bain, one of Robin Bain's brothers said he went to the Dunedin Prison on June 28 with another of David's uncles to talk about what should happen to the Every St house.
And, because none of the other members of the family had ventured the subject, he asked David did he ''do it''.
The conversation was four days after Bain was arrested for the murders of his parents and three siblings.
Mr Bain, who was giving evidence in the High Court retrial of 37-year-old Bain in Christchurch said he and other family members had decided the house had to come down as the property was worth more without the house than with it.
He agreed that when the fire brigade set fire to the house in a controlled burn on July 7, it had been spectacular, like a funeral pyre, although that had not been intended.
