Murder accused Ewen Macdonald joked about Scott Guy sleeping in after he failed to show for work on the day he was shot dead, he told police.

Macdonald, 32, has denied shooting and killing Mr Guy, 31, on July 8, 2010 after growing tensions over the future of the family farm in Feilding.

At his murder trial in the High Court at Wellington this morning Detective Graeme Parsons has continued reading out a transcript of a statement Macdonald gave police in the month following his brother-in-law's death.

Macdonald told police that the night before Mr Guy was found dead, he and his wife, Anna watched Shortland Street before going to bed.

In bed, Macdonald then watched Grey's Anatomy or Criminal Minds - he could not remember - before going to sleep.

He told police his radio alarm woke him at 4.50am. He got out of bed, but did not turn the light on, and walked into the bedroom's walk-in wardrobe.

After dressing, he returned to the bedroom before walking down the hallway, putting on his shoes and leaving his house.

"I could see that Scott's ute was not there.

"In my mind I thought that Scott might have slept in so I though I must hurry up and get out there.''

Once he arrived at work he joked to the other farm workers about Scott being "sleeping beauty'' after believing he had slept in.

He then got started with his morning duties, which he laid out in great detail to police in his statement.

At 7.15am he received a call from Bruce Johnstone.

''[He said] there has been an accident, something has happened to Scotty ... He's dead, he's dead mate.''

Macdonald thought he replied something like "what, are you joking?''.

He then drove to the crime scene, where he was stopped by police from getting closer than six metres from the body.

He could see blood around Scott Guy's head, but told police he "did not want to look any more''.

It was clear to Macdonald that Scott Guy was dead.

He told police, in his statement, that he remembered the gate was closed, which was unusual.

The crown alleges Macdonald cornered Scott Guy, who had to get out of his ute to open the gate, in the dark of the night before shooting him dead.

- APNZ