Shortly after Bruce Saunders was found in a wood chipper, Sharon Graham tried to claim she was still in a relationship with her ex-partner “because of the insurance”, a court has been told.
Graham, 61, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter after Saunders, 54, died while working on a property in Brisbane’s north in November 2017.
Graham is accused of asking Roser and another man, Peter Koenig, to kill Saunders and make it look like an accident to claim his ex-partner’s $750,000 life insurance policy.
Saunders, 54, died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017. (Supplied)
The jury was shown police video on Wednesday of Mr Saunders’ legs sticking out of the chipper on the Goomboorian property, near Gympie, after he had been clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.
Friend Kim Simpson told the Supreme Court in Brisbane that Graham had broken up with Saunders but moved into her home in Nambour, living in separate rooms.
He said Graham had called him “crying hysterically”, telling him that “one of the boys had fallen into the chipper”.
A “week or two” later, Graham asked Simpson to write a letter to her lawyer after earlier mentioning that Saunders had “left everything to her”, the court heard.
“She asked me if I could write a letter to her attorney stating that she and Bruce were in a relationship at the time of her death … because of the insurance,” Simpson told the jury.
Asked if she wrote the letter, Simpson said, “No, because it wasn’t true.”
Graham has been accused of being in a “love affair” with Roser, Koenig and Saunders, plotting the latter’s murder for months.
Graham’s friend Leonie Whyte said Koenig and Roser told her Saunders’ death was an accident.
Graham told another friend in text exchanges shown in court that Mr Saunders had been texting him before his phone fell into the chipper. (9 News)
“They said Bruce was playing with something in the machinery and he wasn’t very careful that day,” he told the court.
However, a neighbor said Graham told him Saunders overbalanced his hand to grab his cellphone and fell into the crusher.
“She said … they just found some clothes … and not much else,” Stanley Cook told the jury.
Graham told another friend in text exchanges shown in court that Saunders had been texting him before his phone fell into the wood chipper and that he could have died trying to retrieve it.
“I can’t talk, I’m devastated. Bruce is dead. He was texting me when his phone must have fallen in the wood chipper and I had to go get it,” Graham texted a friend.
“The police said it’s a tragic accident… I’ve been crying all night. I’m devo.”
Another neighbor said Koenig often stayed at the Nambour residence and gave a “detailed account” of the death.
Anthony Eyndhoven said Koenig told him the last time he saw Saunders he was feeding a branch into the shredder, but when his back was turned he heard the machine “make a different sound.”
Peter Koenig (left), Greg Roser (center) and Sharon Graham (right). (Supplied)
Koenig said he shut down the shredder, but didn’t see Saunders until he “walked around the back and saw legs coming out.”
Eyndhoven said Koenig also told him the crusher owner “would have a lot to answer for” because the safety switch was disconnected.
Other neighbors told the court there were regular parties at the Nambour residence after Saunders’ death.
They said people were “coming and going”, including Graham in his late ex-partner’s car and “things were being taken out of the house”.
“The parties started after his death and continued for several weeks … definitely until Christmas (2017),” neighbor Colleen Paice said.
Ten days after Saunders’ funeral, Graham texted a friend saying: “Let’s go to Yandina Hotel… BIG BAND… WOOHOO.”
The trial before Judge Martin Burns continues.