‘‘MY HEAD spun,’’ Sally Anne Maher told the Supreme Court yesterday, of the morning she awoke to the news that two people had died in a fire and realisation that the man beside her had earlier said he had killed one of the victims.
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‘‘And my heart still beats excessively fast now.’’
The Crown witness, also known as Ms McGuire, said during evidence-in-chief that her girlfriend read from a newspaper that two people had died in Launceston and they were Angela Maree Hallam and Joshua Eric Newman.
Ms Maher, 40, of Hobart, told jurors that after that she tried to avoid Marco Daniel Rusterholz, her then boyfriend, as much as she could and was extremely scared.
The third week of the Launceston trial of Mr Rusterholz, 51, started yesterday .
He has pleaded not guilty to the murders of Ms Hallam, 31, and Mr Newman, 21, a couple whose stabbed, burnt remains were found in a unit fire in Pioneer Parade, Ravenswood, on August 15, 2012.
Earlier, Crown prosecutor John Ransom asked Ms Maher about how she knew Mr Rusterholz.
Ms Maher said that Matthew James Coventry had introduced her to the accused and their original relationship was based on dealing morphine.
She said that she had made between $1000 to $5000 a day, while staying awake on ‘‘a ridiculous amount’’ of amphetamine.
Ms Maher said that on the night of August 15, 2012, she hosted a gathering in her Brooker Highway unit, near the Hobart Showground, and Mr Rusterholz arrived about midnight and told her that he had killed ‘‘Ange’’.
Ms Maher said that she had laughed in disbelief and then Mr Rusterholz opened his green plastic shopping bag.
‘‘I could see a mop of blonde hair and he said it was her ponytail,’’ Ms Maher said.
The witness said she assumed at the time that Mr Rusterholz was ‘‘big-noting’’ himself.
Defence counsel Evan Hughes asked Ms Maher why she had not told police that Mr Rusterholz had confessed to her and shown her the hair.
Ms Maher replied that she feared being accused of drug trafficking.
Yesterday’s earlier Crown witness was Launceston woman Dana Smith, Mr Coventry’s ex-partner, who said that Mr Rusterholz had asked Jamie Leigh Smith ‘‘to kill Angela’’.
Under cross-examination, Ms Smith confirmed that she was unrelated to Mr Smith, who was on parole for murder, and she agreed that the accused had been talking as part of a group who wanted Mr Smith to kill Ms Hallam.
The trial continues.
