A man accused of murdering his brother-in-law and attempting to kill three other people told a friend he would “sort out” his osteopath just months before allegedly shooting him, a court has heard.
The High Court in Edinburgh was also told that weeks before the alleged incident, Finlay MacDonald, 41, showed a friend a YouTube video featuring a model human head being shot with a shotgun.
MacDonald is on trial accused of murdering his brother-in-law John MacKinnon, 47, and the attempted murder of three other people including his wife on 10 August 2022.
It is alleged he repeatedly discharged a shotgun at Mr MacKinnon and murdered him in the village of Teangue on the Isle of Skye.
He is accused of firing a shotgun at married couple Fay and John MacKenzie and attempting to murder them in the village of Dornie, Wester Ross.
He is also accused of attempting to murder his wife, Rowena MacDonald, 34, by repeatedly stabbing her in the village of Tarskavaig, on Skye’s Sleat peninsula.
Giving evidence on Wednesday, Shain Westerman said he first met MacDonald after moving to Tarskavaig in 2020 and they would get together about once a week for a “man chat”.
Samantha Crawford and Michael Cummins: Fife couple who forced boys to take part in rape of baby girl jailed
Phoenix Spencer-Horn: Man arrested and charged over death of woman in East Kilbride
Finlay MacDonald: Skye murder accused felt ‘humiliated’ by brother-in-law
He said MacDonald experienced a number of physical health problems in the months prior to the alleged incident, which led to him taking time off work.
He said MacDonald “whinged” and talked about his condition “constantly”, and that he had become “angry” when talking about his osteopath, Mr MacKenzie, who he had been seeing about his bad back.
Mr Westerman related an alleged conversation he had with MacDonald after his first visit to Mr MacKenzie, also known as John Don, which he said had made his back pain worse.
“He said he was going to sort out John Don and when he did he was going to go out in a blaze of glory,” Mr Westerman told the court.
He claimed he had not taken the threat seriously, explaining he thought MacDonald had “been watching too many cowboy films”.
Read more from the court case:
Wife of accused tells court about knife attack
Defendant claimed osteopath ruined his life, court told
Woman ‘feared she and husband were going to be killed’
Murder accused felt ‘humiliated’ by brother-in-law
He also said that “only a matter of weeks before the incident”, MacDonald had shown him a YouTube video in which someone with a shotgun shot a “human head made of ballistic gel”, which the court heard was a material used to “mimic human flesh”.
The court heard Mrs MacDonald had been on holiday at the time and the accused had not been able to go with her because of his back pain.
MacDonald’s defence lawyer Donald Finlay KC asked Mr Westerman why he had failed to mention the “blaze of glory” line to police in statements he gave immediately after the incident, given its relevance to the alleged offences.
Follow our channel and never miss an update.
The court heard he mentioned it for the first time in a police statement given two years later.
Mr Westerman said at the time he thought the matter was an “open and shut case” and he had not wanted to “get involved”, but he decided to mention it two years later after it played on his “conscience”.
Mr Findlay also put it to Mr Westerman that in the months following the incident he had stolen two cars and a number of tools belonging to MacDonald, including the Subaru that had been used in the alleged incident.
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
Mr Westerman insisted MacDonald had given him permission to take them, and that the police had pressured him to take the Subaru after MacDonald had “bequeathed” it to him as it was accruing “charges”.
MacDonald denies all the charges and has lodged a special defence against the murder charge, claiming his “ability to determine or control his conduct was substantially impaired by reason of abnormality of mind”.
The trial continues in front of judge Lady Drummond.
