Murder accused Ewen Macdonald was at home turning off his workshop alarm when his brother-in-law Scott Guy was fatally shot, Macdonald's lawyer says.

Greg King told jurors at the High Court in Wellington in his closing address on Thursday that the Crown's assertion that McDonald was shot at 4.43am on July 8, 2010 didn't fit with the evidence.

Prosecution and defence closing statements were made on Thursday before the jury of 11 considers its verdict.

Crown lawyer Ben Vanderkolk earlier on Thursday had described Macdonald as a man holding deep-seated resentment and anger towards Mr Guy who had earlier committed arson and vandalism against property of Mr Guy before murdering him.

But Mr King said those crimes were committed against property and not people.

He said the Crown's theory that the murder was committed about 4.45am contradicted that of neighbours who said they saw 5am on their clocks when they heard three bangs.

If this was true, Macdonald could not have murdered Mr Guy as he turned off the workshop alarm at his home at 5.03am, Fairfax reported.

Mr King also said the evidence that the farm shotgun was used didn't fit with testimony from neighbours of hearing three loud bangs in quick succession.

American arms expert Mitchell Maxberry told the court on Wednesday that a double-barrelled shotgun took one second to fire two shots and then needed seven seconds to reload before a third could be fired.

"You have to ask yourself what links that farm shotgun to the crime and there is nothing," Mr King said.

Mr Vanderkolk, who had argued the neighbours' clock was fast, said Macdonald had already burned down an old farm house on the property, vandalised a new house and put offensive letters in Mr Guy's mailbox.

He said Macdonald was deeply unhappy about the direction the farm was heading when Mr Guy announced he wanted to inherit the family farm and though some issues were fixed, Macdonald felt a sense of entitlement to the farm and got it in his head to commit murder.