Family members of a dead Adelaide drug dealer have disputed claims that he confessed to a murder for which another man was jailed.
Daniel Troy Ames, 49, was convicted of murdering his 68-year-old uncle, Allan Ames, at his Cavan workshop in 2009, and received a minimum 24-year sentence.
He has already served more than a decade behind bars in Mobilong Prison and has launched a fresh bid for freedom in the Court of Criminal Appeal.
His lawyers now claim convicted drug trafficker Peter Lagerwey confessed to the murder in front of his wife and his friend, Craig Peterson, at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in July 2016.
Giving evidence, Mr Peterson said Lagerwey told him he had murdered "Danny's uncle" in the days before he died of cancer.
But Lagerwey's mother, Marie Badman, told the court she "was in Peter's hospital room 99.9 per cent of the time" before he died.
"In the last few days of his life, he was unconscious and heavily medicated. He could hardly string two sentences together," she said.
"There was no mention that Peter said he could get Danny out of prison."
Lagerwey's widow, whose name is suppressed, also told the court there was no murder confession.
"If my husband had told me, I would speak up. It never happened," she said.
"Craig would not stop with the story. I just buried my husband and it was disrespectful that Craig was making this lie up."
Ames is not seeking an acquittal, but wants a retrial.
One of the detectives assigned to the original case, Rod Huppatz, told the court a prison informant had suggested to him, in 2011, that Lagerwey may have been involved in the shooting.
When questioned about why Lagerwey was not investigated further, Mr Huppatz said: "There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Mr Lagerwey was involved in the murder of Mr Ames."
The appeal will resume next Thursday.
