Woman accused of murdering former partner to be judged separately

A woman accused of plotting the murder of her former partner, whose body was fed into a woodchipper, will be judged separately to her partner who is also charged with murder after the judge decided that he was asking too much of the jury.

Sharon Graham and her partner Gregory Roser were charged with the murder of 54-year-old Bruce Saunders, who died in November 2017 while tree lopping at a property in Goomboorian near Gympie.

The couple was tried together at the Supreme Court and pleaded not guilty last week.

Supreme Court Justice Martin Burns told the jury that they would only need to consider Roser's matter.

Sometimes it is asking too much of a jury to think you can give separate consideration to the cases, Judge Burns said.

Ms Graham, 61, was remanded in custody, with a date for a new trial to be reviewed on October 21.

The prosecution has accused Mr Roser of killing Mr Saunders before he and another man, Peter Koenig, put his body in the woodchipper at the request of Ms Graham, who was to benefit from his $750,000 life insurance policy.

Ms Graham has denied she instructed anyone to murder her former partner.

Mr. Koenig was called to testify before the jury and said he had known Ms Graham through previously having an intimate relationship with her, Mr Saunders through work contacts and Mr Roser through the couple.

In 2017, he was present when Ms Graham introduced Mr Roser to her partner, Roger Mr Koenig, as Ms Graham and Mr Roser met him at a motel in Gympie in October 2018 and told him of their plan to kill Mr Saunders for his life insurance money.

"Yes, I'd help, but I never planned to kill them - I just wanted to keep them happy," Koenig said.

He said the couple told him they planned to use a woodchipper to murder Mr Saunders when he cleared trees from a property.

Mr Koenig said a short time later, he, Mr Roser, and two others cleared trees from the property and then returned to Ms Graham's house to stay the night before returning to finish clearing.

Mr Koenig told the court when Mr Saunders was in the shower, Ms Graham questioned him and Mr Roser why the murder had not been carried out.

She was asking what was going on and why hadn't it happened yet. Greg Roser said the machine was playing up and there was too many people around, as in neighbours.

She said to both of us, ''Well it's got to be done. Mr Koenig said earlier in the day that Ms Graham and Mr Roser knew he had a 22 calibre handgun, and he met him at the motel in Gympie and asked to borrow it.

She asked me if I still had it, and I said yes - she wanted to give it to Greg Roser to shoot rabbits.

I gave them the gun and ammo in a carrier bag -- the gun was loaded with six bullets.

After maybe a fortnight, they gave it back, and one of them said the gun was too noisy, and there were two missing shots.