Woodchipper murder trial: ‘Thou shalt not kill’ message left in letterbox of accused, Brisbane court hears
The message “thou shalt not kill” was left in a shaken Sharon Graham’s letterbox during a woodchipper death investigation, a Brisbane court has heard.
Graham, 61, and partner Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have pleaded not guilty to murder after Bruce Saunders died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.
Prosecutors allege Graham asked Roser and another lover, Peter Koenig, to kill her ex-partner Saunders, 54, and make it look like an accident in a bid to claim his $750,000 life insurance.
Footage has been shown to a Brisbane supreme court jury of Saunders’ legs protruding from a woodchipper at the Goomboorian property near Gympie after clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.
In a February 2018 conversation, recorded by police listening devices planted throughout her Nambour residence, Graham complained to Roser that she “can’t cope”.
“I don’t want to be in this house any more. I can’t stay here,” she says in audio played to the jury on Thursday.
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“You have no idea what has happened this week. I can’t talk to you on the phone … scary shit.
“I’ve got people putting paperwork in my letterbox like the Ten Commandments.”
“The Ten Commandments?” Roser asks.
“Yeah, ‘thou shalt not kill’ … I’ll show it to you,” Graham says.
“What the fuck,” Roser replies.
The couple also discuss inconsistencies in Roser’s police statements at the Nambour residence where Saunders also used to live.
“You have actually incriminated yourself to be put on charges which is totally not right,” Graham says.
“You need to tell a lawyer ‘I fucked up with my statements … because the day of it happening I have a total block … Something has blocked my head’.”
In the audio, Roser says there are inconsistencies about where he was when he claimed he first saw Saunders in the chipper after answering the police’s “dickhead questions”.
Graham then reminds Roser that police could not find footprints where he claimed he had stood in his effort to “save” Saunders from the chipper.
“That definitely caught you,” she says.
Roser replies: “I fucked up there.” Graham adds: “In shock you would say a lot of things that were not right.”
Roser blames the police for his statement inconsistencies.
“Because you know what they do, they interrupt you all the time … and it fucks you up,” he says.
“I had in my mind something and then he [police] started talking … that’s what they kept doing to me.”
The couple also discuss blaming Roser’s medication after researching side-effects.
Roser tells Graham that one causes “dizziness and light-headedness”.
“You can’t judge things … you can’t judge distances, it throws you out,” he says.
Graham tells Roser to approach his doctor and say the medication’s serious side-effects had led to confusing police statements.
She then discovers they are reading the medication’s withdrawal symptoms.
Roser then says: “Here we go, this one … I know I have got that – disorientation.”
“What’s disorientation mean?”
Graham asks.
“It means you can’t make decisions,” he replies.
Graham then tells Roser: “The doctor has to put all of this in writing for you.”
Graham has successfully applied for a separate trial.
Roser’s trial before Justice Martin Burns continues on Monday.