Anna Macdonald today gave evidence for the second time at the murder trial of her husband.
The Crown alleges Macdonald, 32, shot and killed Mrs Macdonald's brother Scott Guy, 31, in the driveway of his home early on July 8, 2010 after tensions over the future of the family farm in Feilding.
Defence lawyer Greg King this afternoon asked Mrs Macdonald if her life had ever been more perfect than on the day before Mr Guy was killed:
"No," she said. "We were all in a really good place," she said, wiping a tear from her eye.
As she spoke, Macdonald sobbed in the dock, wiping tears from his face with a blue handkerchief.
It was his first show of emotion in the seven days the trial has run in the High Court at Wellington.
Macdonald has spent most of the trial looking down in the dock and taking notes.
Earlier, the court heard Scott Guy surprised his father at a tense meeting in which he laid out "harsh criticisms" of how the family farm was run.
Bryan Guy is today giving evidence for the second time at the murder trial of his son-in-law Ewen Macdonald.
The Crown alleges Macdonald, 32, shot and killed Mr Guy, 31, in the driveway of his home on July 8, 2010 after tensions over the future of the family farm in Feilding.
The trial is this week hearing evidence about the relationship between Macdonald and his brother-in-law Mr Guy, which is crucial in establishing a motive.
Bryan Guy told the High Court at Wellington today that he was surprised when Scott raised criticisms of the farm with the three couples who ran the business during a meeting in 2008.
It was not unusual to hold farm meetings but Scott came with an agenda they had not discussed before.
"Some of it was quite harsh criticisms on how he saw the farm operating."
The meeting was "tense" but people were clam and collected about it.
"We all wanted the business to succeed."
Scott Guy raised the issue of communication, which Bryan Guy said he had tried to take the lead role on.
"We were very aware that when we set the business up, that a lot of family businesses don't succeed."
He also said it was unfair the other couples - Ewen and Anna Macdonald, who is Scott's sister, and Bryan and Jo Guy - owned houses.
The Macdonalds had moved into the family home on the farm, but Scott and wife Kylee Guy were still renting.
"We accepted the criticism and said, 'How can we get Scott and Kylee into a house of their own."'
The farm later bought a block of land it had been leasing and arrangements were made to build a new home for Scott and Kylee Guy.
Bryan Guy said he did not desperately want his children to take on the farming business and there was no obligation on them to do so.
But he did encourage them to become shareholders in the farm because he thought they would put more into the business.
Bryan Guy said it came as a surprise when Scott told a farm planning meeting - at which the family were to lay out their hopes and fears for the future - that he wanted to inherit the farm.
"He had the expectation that he would inherit the farm. It certainly wasn't the expectation that [wife] Joanne and I had."
Bryan Guy said it was talked about openly and frankly and he agreed he thought the issue had been put to bed.
Bryan Guy said the hours his son and Macdonald put in were never going to be equal because of their different roles, but if Scott was putting the effort in, it would not be an issue.
Scott Guy also took a fair amount of time off when he and Kylee's son Hunter was born, but Bryan Guy felt it was not something he had to speak up about.
"I knew that he'd soon get back to focusing more on the farm."
Kylee Guy earlier gave evidence that her husband did not have much interest in the dairy side of the business, which Macdonald was in charge of, and often worked long hours on the tractor in his role as cropping manager.
The relationship between Mr Guy and Macdonald was fine at first, but communication between them and Bryan Guy was an issue.
"That was the main problem with the farm, was communication between the three of them."
Ms Guy said people would come to Scott Guy with problems but he got frustrated at the lack of action.
"Scott would try to bring it forward and he just felt he wasn't being listened to, no one took any notice."
Mr Guy also felt it was unfair when Macdonald and wife Anna moved into the family home he grew up in.
Ms Guy said her husband was "a real softie" and did not want to upset anyone over the issue.
"All Scott wanted was to be fair."
She said Mr Guy would never put his hand out.
"He was never greedy at all."
Ms Guy said she and her husband had a long term plan to move to Hawkes Bay and run a smaller farm within 10 to 15 years.
The trial continues.
