Woman allegedly asked lovers why expartner wasn’t dead before body found in woodchipper, court hears
A week before Bruce Saunders’ body was found in a woodchipper north of Brisbane, Sharon Graham asked her two lovers why her ex-partner had not already been killed, a court has heard.
Gregory Lee Roser, 63, is on trial for murder and has pleaded not guilty after Saunders, 54, died while working on a Queensland property in November 2017.
Graham, 61, has also pleaded not guilty to Saunders’ murder but a Brisbane supreme court judge on Tuesday ordered she be tried separately from Roser.
Roser and another man, Peter Koenig, were allegedly asked to kill Saunders and make it look like an accident in a bid to claim his $750,000 life insurance policy, the court has heard.
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The jury has been shown police footage of Saunders’ legs protruding from a woodchipper at the Goomboorian property near Gympie after he had been clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.
Koenig pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder in June, the court heard.
Koenig said about three months before Saunders died, Graham asked him to meet her and Roser at a Gympie motel, telling them she had organised for the property to be cleared.
When asked what else Graham said, Koenig told the jury: “About killing Bruce – Sharon wanted him killed.”
Asked why, Koenig replied: “Money. I think it was insurance money, life insurance.”
Koenig said they “just agreed” but he did not intend to kill Saunders.
“Why say yes?” the crown prosecutor, David Meredith, said on Tuesday.
“Just to keep her happy,” Koenig replied.
Koenig said he had been in an intimate relationship with Graham, who was dating Roser at the time of her expartner Saunders’ death.
After clearing the property for a second straight weekend they returned to Saunders’ Nambour home which Koenig shared with Graham who slept in a separate bedroom.
When Saunders went for a shower, Koenig said Graham asked why he was still alive.
“She asked what was going on, why didn’t it happen,” Koenig told the jury.
After being told that the woodchipper was “playing up” and there were too many people around, Koenig said Graham replied: “Well, it’s got to be done.” The next weekend Saunders’ body was found in the woodchipper.
Roser has been accused of killing Saunders by hitting him in the head with a metal bar before he and Koenig allegedly fed the body into the chipper.
Koenig said a week before the motel meeting, Graham and Roser had asked to borrow his handgun to shoot some rabbits, but returned it a fortnight later because it was “too noisy”.
The Crown has alleged that Graham plotted Saunders’ death for up to six months, at one stage asking Roser to shoot her ex-partner before abandoning that plan.
Justice Martin Burns earlier told the jury that Graham would face a separate trial, with her matter to be reviewed in October. Roser and Graham’s joint trial had just entered its second week.
“Sometimes it is asking too much to expect that you can give separate consideration to respective cases,” Burns said.
“To ask you to give the case a separate consideration would be asking you to perform impossible mental gymnastics. So far as the case against Ms Graham is concerned that point has been reached.
“I therefore discharge you from having to deliver a verdict in her case … when you return we will continue Mr Roser’s trial.” His trial continues.