A Riverside man accused of murder was angry with Jake Anderson-Brettner, his former partner Gemma Elizabeth Clark told the Supreme Court in Launceston.
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Jack Harrison Vincent Sadler, 29, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Anderson-Brettner alleged to have occurred about 7.30pm on August 15, 2018, at the Riverside home he shared with Ms Clark.
Ms Clark is in jail after pleading guilty to failing to report a killing and to being an accessory after the fact to the murder.
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She sat facing away from Mr Sadler, which prompted Justice Robert Pearce to ask her to ensure that she spoke into the microphone.
Under questioning from the Director of Public Prosecutions Daryl Coates SC, Ms Clark said that Mr Sadler used to go to the gym with Mr Anderson Brettner, 24.
"Did Mr Sadler ever say how he felt about Mr Brettner as he was known then?" he asked.
"I know he was angry at him, I just can't remember why," Ms Clark replied.
She said she did not know the deceased man.
Ms Clark said that Mr Sadler asked her to block Mr Anderson-Brettner on social media.
Mr Coates asked her about text messages exchanged between Mr Sadler and Ms Clark.
"'Please tell me that you punched him and he says that he is going to', did you send that ?" Mr Coates asked.
"I don't actually recall it, no," she said.
She said the two men went to the gym together.
"It didn't last long, I remember Jack saying he was a little bitch and didn't want to put the work in and wasn't as serious about it," she said.
Clark said that Mr Sadler thought Mr Anderson-Brettner was a good person for selling drugs because he was popular and would often be out on the town.
SADLER RELATED NEWS
Clark said that Mr Sadler was taking cocaine increasingly in the months before the alleged murder.
"There was steroid use, that was a gym thing and cocaine which did not seem that frequent at the start but it became all the time in the office," she said.
Ms Clark, 27, said that a dark pistol, similar to a court exhibit she saw, was left in many rooms of the house.
"It could lie on the floor of the office, on the desk sometimes in a cane box and sometimes in a cupboard, it wasn't hidden," she said.
"I think at one point it was in the bedside table in the top drawer in the bedroom."
Clark said she may have moved the weapon but "never really handled" it.
The Crown alleges Mr Sadler shot Mr Anderson-Brettner three times with a Smith and Wesson nine0milimetre and then beheaded and dismembered his body.
The jury heard last week that Ms Clark held open garbage bags while Mr Sadler placed Mr Anderson-Brettner's body parts inside.
It has also heard that Ms Clark drove Mr Sadler to The Sideling where the torso of Mr Anderson-Brettner was thrown down a bank.
The jury heard that on the night of the alleged murder Mr Sadler asked Ms Clark to go into an adjoining room with a dog when Mr Anderson-Brettner arrived at their home about 7.25pm.
Mr Coates showed Ms Clark a photo and asked if she recognised the dog and whether it was Mr Sadler's.
Ms Clark broke down in tears saying "No, he's my dog".
"What is his name?" Mr Coates asked.
"Benji," she replied.
Ms Clark said she moved into Dion crescent in December 2017.
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