The body of a Tauranga man was put in a tree mulcher, doused with acid and buried in a maize field, a key witness told a jury in a double murder trial in Rotorua.

Under examination from Crown prosecutor Greg Hollister-Jones in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday, witness Luke Dobbs said he was told William Taikato had been disposed of "where they will never find him" after he was shot dead.

Three Tauranga men – Mark Puata, 53, John Aitken, 35, and David Anderson, 43 – are charged with murdering Mr Taikato on December 19, 2007.

Puata is also charged with murdering Darrell Crawford on August 12, 2007, while Anderson faces an alternative charge of being an accessory after the fact to the murder of Mr Taikato.

The bodies of Mr Taikato, 41, and Mr Crawford, 35, have never been found.

Continuing his evidence from Thursday, Mr Dobbs said he was visited by Anderson the day after he had seen Mr Taikato allegedly shot by Aitken at the Greasy Dogs gang pad on December 19, 2007.

The pair had a "heavy session" smoking P for eight to 10 hours, he told the court.

"Dave wasn't very talkative at first, which was unusual, but he opened up after a few hours.

"He said that John had shot him [Taikato] and they had got rid of him. They'd stuck him through a wood chipper, and poured acid on him and stuck him in the ground in a maize field.

"He said: `Where he's gone they'll never find him'."

Mr Dobbs said Anderson had told him Mr Taikato was killed because he had organised a home invasion at Aitken's house "about four or five months beforehand".

Anderson later produced the silver pistol that was allegedly used to shoot Mr Taikato, the court heard.

"He put it on the table and wanted to hand it to me but I didn't want my fingerprints on it. It was still loaded I think."

Mr Dobbs said he went back to the gang pad the next day because "it was what I normally did when I was leaving Tauranga".

"It would have been strange if I did not go before I left."

As he walked in a woman at the pad said "We should kill him as well," he told the court.

Under cross-examination, lawyer Peter Kaye, for Aitken, told Mr Dobbs that there was no shooting.

Mr Dobbs had only gone to police to collect the $50,000 reward offered for information. "You saw no shooting at the gang pad, did you?"

Mr Kaye said Mr Taikato's phone records showed text messages and calls being made after he was allegedly shot.

"Why was a man who was shot twice making phone calls to the man who you say shot him. It didn't happen at the pad, and it didn't involve John Aitken, did it?"

Mr Dobbs' evidence was "nothing but a tissue of lies", Mr Kaye said.

Mr Dobbs denied lying. He was was not involved in the shooting, he said.

His evidence will continue on Monday.