An acquaintance of a NSW country town man who vanished more than a decade ago admits the pair often exchanged unfriendly words over the fence or through their gate.
But Bruce Anthony Coss, 49, denies killing Darren Royce Willis with a steel-capped baseball bat or having anything to do with his disappearance.
Coss has pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court at Moree to murdering the 45-year-old man who was last seen leaving the Imperial Hotel in Bingara on December 10, 2010.
The crown case relies on documentary evidence of recorded conversations and two key witnesses who say they either watched or heard directly from the accused about the alleged attack.
But the accuracy and honesty of these two male witnesses is a crucial point of contention, the judge-alone trial was told on Monday.
Coss is accused of fatally striking Mr Willis with a modified wooden baseball bat as he walked home from the pub "in the dead of the night", defence barrister P. King said.
After an investigation into his disappearance was first launched in early 2011, Coss was arrested in October 2019.
Justice Hament Dhanji will hear his long-time denial of any involvement in a police interview, Mr King said.
The two key accounts varied significantly and trickled down through the local community akin to "Chinese whispers," and on the night in question both men had consumed a large amount of alcohol and cannabis, he said.
"Pissed and stoned is the phrase the court will hear more than once in this trial."
One of the men "forgot the incident for many years, and only remembered when one of the Chinese whispering participants reminded him about a bat with a screw being used in a deadly assault".
An earlier inquest was told that the involvement of others unknown could not be ruled out, due to Mr Willis's lifestyle.
"It's just the way he lived his life ... Always in pubs, always on the drink, always in trouble with the police ... (he) could have come across the wrong person," Mr King read from the inquest's transcript.
Another theory was that Mr Willis tried to cross a river and was swept away.
Mr King said his client was open with investigating officers about friction caused when Mr Willis placed sheep on Coss's land that later died.
"They had a complicated and from time-to-time unfriendly relationship," Mr King said.
"Words were spoken over the fence, or through the gate ... not always friendly words."
But he disputes ever striking him to the head on the roadway late at night, he said.
The trial continues.
