A woman now accused of murdering her grazier partner screamed at paramedics to keep on performing CPR after they declared him to be dead.
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Paramedic Colin Crossman said after he was allocated the job at 2.02 am, his phone pinged and he saw a text from the grazier's phone saying "tell police to come to house, I don't want Tash or kids to find me".
Mr Crossman was giving evidence at the NSW Supreme Court Sydney trial of his estranged wife, Natasha Beth Darcy, who is accused of sedating and gassing Mathew Dunbar.
The 46-year-old has pleaded not guilty to murdering the 42-year-old sheep farmer on his property Pandora in the Northern Tablelands town of Walcha in the early hours of August 2, 2017.
She says she aided or abetted suicide, but the Crown contends she killed Mr Dunbar in a bid to inherit his $3.5 million property.
Giving evidence via audio-visual link from Tamworth, Mr Crossman told the jury he married Darcy in 2007, but they separated in 2011 and he regularly visited Pandora to see children living at the property.
He said he intended divorcing Darcy "when I have a spare few dollars" as his finances were strained since she set their house on fire in 2009 when he was sleeping.
The jury has previously been told Darcy had also admitted hitting Mr Crossman in the head with a hammer when he was sleeping, after first saying the culprit was an intruder.
Mr Crossman testified that he was aware Mr Dunbar had threatened self-harm, had stayed in a psychiatric facility and had an infected throat which had led to his leg becoming infected.
He saw him limping and using crutches and about a week before his death Mr Dunbar told him the muscle in his calf was dead or dying.
The grazier said he had been told the worst-case scenario was that his leg would be amputated and he could be on crutches for months or years.
Mr Crossman said he saw Mr Dunbar at Pandora on the weekend before his death when he seemed to be fine.
"He seemed happy. There didn't seem to be any problems. He didn't seem depressed," he said.
In fact, he seemed to be the happiest he had seen him and was enjoying being out and about the property, despite his leg hurting.
At 2.02 am, he got the call to go to Pandora with another paramedic, before hearing the ping on his phone and seeing the text from Mr Dunbar's phone which said it had been received at 1.14 am.
When they arrived, he saw Darcy performing CPR on Mr Dunbar, who was lying on his bed.
He had no pulse or responses, but the paramedics worked on him for 20 to 25 minutes before he was declared deceased.
"Natasha screamed she wanted us to keep doing CPR, to keep going," he said.
He took her to another room and tried to calm her down, asking her what happened when he visited the specialist.
She told him the specialist said part of his calf muscle was dying and even with surgery, he was likely to have a permanent limp.
"On the way home, Matt said he is going to have to sell the farm if he can't work on it," she told him.
Mr Crossman is expected to be cross-examined on Wednesday.
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Australian Associated Press
