A man whose alleged relationship with his brother's wife led to the woman being charged with murdering her own mother told police the pair were just best friends.
Isabela Carolina Camelo-Gomez, now 47, has pleaded not guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to murdering Irene Jones on November 2, 2001, at her Sydney home.
Prosecutors allege Camelo-Gomez - then known as Megan Jones - staged a break-in to cover up the fact she strangled and stabbed her 56-year-old mother in the kitchen.
David Scully argued she had been obsessed with Carlos Camelo-Gomez, a married man her mother hated.
She was so resolved to keep him happy she had even married his brother months before the murder to secure the man a visa, Mr Scully said.
However, defence lawyer Belinda Rigg SC says her client didn't begin a relationship with Carlos Camelo-Gomez until months after the murder, and suggested he might actually be responsible for the murder.
He has severe amnesia after a car crash and cannot give evidence.
In an interview with police the day after the murder, he can be heard telling police he and Ms Jones were just friends.
"I never, never had any sexual relationship with her at all," he said in the tape played to the trial on Tuesday.
"She is my best friend."
He told police they spoke everyday - often twice - and that his ex-wife believed Ms Jones had taken him away from her.
"She cares about me a lot. She knows what I've been through with my ex-wife. She's a good person," he said.
He was similarly glowing of his relationship with Irene Jones, whom he lived with briefly.
"I used to be good friends with her. She liked me a lot," he said.
He told police he had never seen a physical confrontation between Irene and Megan Jones in the time he lived with them, and could only recall one verbal argument over food.
Asked if they ever argued about him living there, Mr Camelo-Gomez said he had never heard them do so.
Police then turned to his movements on the day of the murder.
Mr Camelo-Gomez met Megan Jones - his brother's wife - for lunch, before he went to Parramatta, returning home to Cecil Hills in southwest Sydney around 9pm.
He says he then went back to Parramatta, where friends were supposed to pick him up for a night of clubbing, but when they were late he again returned home around midnight.
The trial has previously heard Camelo-Gomez reported the crime to police around 9.45pm.
Mr Camelo-Gomez also told police he once had a key to Irene Jones' Lansdale home but had lost it.
The trial continues.
