In July 2010, Scott Guy, a New Zealand farmer, was shot dead at the gate of his family farm in Feilding, Manawatū-Whanganui, at age 31.
Both men managed the Guys' family farm and surrounding properties on Aorangi Road, just outside of Feilding.
The case captured the attention of the New Zealand media and public for two years prior to the trial, at which Macdonald was acquitted.
[4] Bryan Guy testified at the trial that he explained to his son, Scott, that he was not going to inherit the farm and that to own it, he would have to buy everyone else out.
[6] One of the Guys' former farm workers, Callum Boe, told police that he and Macdonald had gone on night time trips that they called 'missions' in which they trespassed, poached deer, and took revenge on farmers who had caught them by secretly returning to destroy valuable livestock and property.
[3] In January 2009, about 18 months before the shooting, they vandalised a home being built by Guy and his wife Kylee, causing $14,000 worth of damage.
Scott Guy was shot dead at the end of his driveway after he stopped to open a farm gate somewhere between 4:43 am and 5:00 am on 8 July 2010.
[8] Adding to the mystery, three chocolate coloured Labrador puppies also disappeared from the farm at the time of Guy's death.
[9] Crown prosecutor Ben Vanderkolk alleged Macdonald closed the farm gates which forced Guy to stop and get out of his vehicle.
Vanderkolk alleged Macdonald used the farm shotgun and was wearing size 9 Proline dive boots while committing the crime.
Vanderkolk claimed Macdonald tried to make it look like a robbery by killing the Labrador puppies which were missing.
Police excavated some of the property where Macdonald lived looking for the dive boots, dead puppies and the shotgun cartridges - but found nothing.
In his summing up at the end of the trial, King added that if there were three shots, the murder weapon could not be the farm's double-barrel shotgun.
[14] King also said the police ignored other possible suspects and failed to investigate car tyre marks at the scene of the crime and the sighting of a mystery sedan on Aorangi Rd.
He said Police also failed to investigate an offender who had a history of shotgun crimes and had committed a string of local burglaries.
Two weeks before Guy was shot he recalled a "tall, unshaven man with dark hair" smelling of alcohol and cigarettes.
[21] Another focus of inquiry was assistant farm manager, Simon Asplin, who'd had a grudge against Scott since they were at school together.
[15] Law professor Chris Gallavin from Massey University says the case interested the public because it involved "beautiful, affluent white people" from a small, conservative rural town...(and) "showed the rest of the country their family dynamics are as messed up as anyone else.
In June 2007, Macdonald and Callum Boe had killed 19 calves belonging to a farmer who had caught them poaching his deer.
Macdonald was also convicted for burning down an old whare (house) and emptying thousands of dollars' worth of milk from a vat on another neighbour's farm.
Anna Macdonald testified at the murder trial that her husband's relationship with Boe was "immature", and she was unaware of what they were doing on their regular night "missions".
[27] In November 2014, it was reported that Macdonald had been denied parole for a third time and his term of imprisonment might run until completion of his sentence on 6 April 2016.