The Crown began summing up its case in Macdonald's murder trial today after more than three weeks of evidence in the High Court at Wellington.
Macdonald, 32, has denied murdering his brother-in-law Scott Guy, 31, after growing tensions over the Feilding family farm they co-managed.
Mr Guy was shot dead in the driveway of his Feilding home as he left to do the milking in the pre-dawn darkness of July 8, 2010.
Two defence witnesses took the stand yesterday after the Crown called dozens of witnesses, including Mr Guy's wife Kylee and close family members.
Macdonald did not give evidence in his defence.
His wife Anna Macdonald, Mr Guy's sister, sat in the public gallery in court today with father and mother Bryan and Jo Guy, and older sister Nikki.
On the opposite side of the public gallery, Macdonald's father Kerry sat behind the dock.
Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk told the jury Mr Guy's murder was planned and "intensely personal".
Before the murder, the Crown alleges Macdonald set about "failed, intensifying efforts" to intimidate Scott and Kylee Guy off the farm.
He put "poisonous letters" in their mailbox, burned down an old farm house on their property and vandalised a new house being built there.
Macdonald had repeatedly voiced concerns about unfairness or inequality on the farm and felt threatened when Mr Guy announced he wanted to inherit the family farm.
The issues on the farm were sorted out - around housing, income and work hours - but Macdonald still was not happy.
When proposals to grow the family business were raised - one of them for either he or Mr Guy to manage another farm - Macdonald "gets it into his head" to commit murder.
Mr Vanderkolk said Macdonald had a "sense of entitlement" and wanted to stay on the farm with his wife Anna, who did not want to move.
He also had a propensity to get ideas into his head, which he then formulated into plans that he carried out without detection or suspicion.
He referred to the shooting of two deer at the nearby Hocken farm.
Mr Vanderkolk said the incident was "striking" because Macdonald got the idea into his head and planned to do it with a young accomplice.
He then had the "brazenness" to take the two deer on a trailer, remove the heads and bury the carcasses.
Macdonald was "unabashed and shameless" about it when he later admitted it to police and showed no guilt.
Mr Vanderkolk said there were "striking parallels" with Mr Guy's death - he used farm equipment, shot his target in the night and then climbed back into bed with his wife without her knowing.
In the vandalism attack, Macdonald had gone to great effort to swing a splitting axe throughout the house.
"The trail of destruction just goes on and on," Mr Vanderkolk said.
"You cannot imagine almost the frenzy and the deep-seated resentment and anger that drives the state of mind of the accused who's doing it."
Macdonald took paint from the farm to paint offensive messages on the house. He had planned to bring the splitting axe, the paint and took the bicycle to carry out the attack with his accomplice.
The attack was directed at Scott and Kylee Guy and was personal.
Mr Vanderkolk said "deeply embedded bitterness" could be the only explanation.
"It's extreme conduct of the most wanton kind."
Mr Vanderkolk spoke of a period of goodness that surprised everybody.
Macdonald arranged for a kaumatua to bless the house that he had himself damaged, gave Mrs Guy a silk tree as a present and arranged family photos.
But Mr Vanderkolk said the jury had to ask how genuine his efforts to improve were.
The issues on the farm were still alive in Macdonald's mind and never went away. They boiled over at a family celebration dinner where he got into an argument with Mr Guy, who left.
By the year of Mr Guy's death, Macdonald's goals were on track and everything was going well.
But with new and wild ideas for the farm being discussed after Bryan and Jo Guy returned from a conference, Macdonald became unsettled by what was going to happen to him and his family.
It did not mollify him that the plans were long-term. They did not align in any way with Macdonald's own plans, and Mr Vanderkolk questioned what it did to his sense of entitlement and dislocation.
Mr Vanderkolk began his closing summary by saying the Crown had to prove Macdonald killed Mr Guy beyond reasonable doubt.
"There is no eyewitness to this murder and it can only be proven by reference to circumstance and by reference to coincidence."
Mr Vanderkolk said the Crown did not have to prove every circumstance or coincidence beyond reasonable doubt.
It was the combination of the strands of facts that was capable of proving guilt, he said.
Mr Vanderkolk said the jury should not be "scared or frightened" of finding Macdonald guilty.
He said there were coincidences in the case that could not be explained away.
Defence lawyer Greg King will begin his summary this afternoon.
