The man accused of killing his brother-in-law, dairy farmer Scott Guy, changed his story about arson and graffiti midway through a police interview when confronted with an accomplice's evidence, a High Court jury has heard.
However, Ewen Macdonald still denies killing Mr Guy in the driveway of his Feilding farm on the morning of July 8, 2010, and said the earlier attacks were "mindless stupidity" and he was not "psycho" enough to shoot him.
Macdonald was arrested on April 7 last year, nine months after the shooting.
Earlier that day, Macdonald was interviewed by police about his knowledge of the theft of two deer from a neighbouring farm in 2006, the torching of an old house on Mr Guy's property in 2008 and vandalism of Mr Guy's new home in 2009.
In a video recording of the interview, played to the High Court at Wellington on Tuesday, Macdonald denied any involvement in the crimes until Detective Laurie Howell confronted him with the testimony of farm worker Callum Boe, who had accompanied Macdonald during the attacks.
Macdonald admitted he and Mr Boe torched the old house and wrote abusive graffiti because he was holding a grudge about the amount of work he was doing on the family farm compared with Mr Guy.
Earlier in the interview, Macdonald had agreed with officers that it "makes sense" that if they found the person responsible for the attacks, they would find the murderer.
When police pointed out they now knew who was behind the arson and criminal damage, Macdonald replied: "Yeah, but I'm not the murderer ... I am not guilty."
Macdonald said he knew nothing of abusive notes sent to Kylee Guy around the time of the arson, or the disappearance of puppies from Mr Guy's property on the day of his murder.
"I've come clean about all the other offences. What concerns me is those letters, you know, is there someone else out there?"
He said the police belief that he'd ridden a pushbike to Mr Guy's house, killed him, and ridden home before starting work was implausible.
"I couldn't get up there in 17 minutes, get rid of the dogs and commit a murder and get back. That doesn't add up to me."
Det Howell put it to Macdonald that he had shot Mr Guy and he did not have an alibi for the morning of the alleged murder.
"Straight up, I honestly don't know what happened. I am not that psycho," Macdonald said.
"I would sooner have Scott work there now. It's been a total pain in the arse, I've had to work harder than before."
Det Howell told Macdonald his situation "can't get any worse", to which Macdonald replied: "Yeah, so not having the murder pinned on me is going to be better."
Following the interview, Macdonald was arrested and charged with theft, arson and criminal damage.
Later that day, he was also charged with Mr Guy's murder.
The trial is continuing.
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