AN alleged hired hitman accused of gunning down grandmother Stacey Klimovitch claims he jumped out of a car bound for Stockton on the night of the murder and fled into bushland after he saw someone with a firearm on the side of a remote stretch of road.
Prosecutors claim the man at the door was accused Canberra hitman Jason Paul Hawkins, now 48, who had been hired by Campbell and who shot Mrs Klimovitch once in the chest with a shotgun at close range.
The jury have been played CCTV footage from outside a house at Heddon Greta that shows Mr Hawkins getting into a Holden Commodore bound for Stockton on the night Mrs Klimovitch was murdered.
But the defence case is that Mr Hawkins got dropped off a short time later and did not make the trip across the Stockton bridge.
And on Monday, Mr Hawkins began giving evidence, telling the jury he went to the house at Heddon Greta to drop off a ute and while he was there saw Campbell and another man, who prosecutors say was the getaway driver, talking about something.
"I saw Stuart hand him a bit of paper," Mr Hawkins gave evidence. "I couldn't see what was on it. I heard two names. I know one of them was Stacey. They were obviously up to something. They asked if I wanted to go with them, or go with [the driver] and I thought I'll jump on board and that'll be my ride home. I agreed to go with him not knowing where I was going or what I was going to do."
Mr Hawkins said just before he got into the passenger seat of the Commodore he saw Campbell and the getaway driver reaching out of the boot.
He said they drove down Main Road at Heddon Greta, onto the Hunter Expressway and then took an exit onto John Renshaw Drive.
"As we're driving along I see up ahead hazard lights flashing," Mr Hawkins said. "There was a car sitting on the side of the road. As we pulled up... I just saw someone jump out of the backseat and all I could see was the butt of a firearm. Soon as I seen that, I just said "nup, I don't want no part of this" and hooked it into the bushes."
Mr Hawkins said the getaway driver yelled out at him and asked where he was going, but he didn't reply or look back and just ran into the bush and laid down.
"Because I seen the firearm," Mr Hawkins said. "I didn't know what was happening. I was under the influence of drugs. Maybe it was that that made me jump out of the car, thinking that I was going to get hurt by the firearm."
Mr Hawkins said he lay still in the bush for a while until the Commodore and the car that had been stopped with its hazards on left and then he walked back to the road.
He claims it was then he realised his phone was missing, so he couldn't call his partner to pick him up.
He said he began walking and hitchhiking along the Hunter Expressway, trying to get back to a house at Argenton where he was staying the night.
Eventually someone stopped and he got a lift back to Argenton where he went inside a house and fell asleep next to his partner. He said he didn't tell her what had happened with the firearm and fleeing from the car because he "didn't want to worry her".
Under cross-examination from Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, Mr Hawkins denied suggestions he knew he was going to Stockton that night and had heard the getaway driver say as much to other people at the house at Heddon Greta.
He also denied claims that he had a photo of a house at Stockton on his phone in the days before the murder and maintained he had "never looked at a house in Stockton or been to a house in Stockton."
Mr Hawkins will continue giving evidence on Tuesday when the trial continues.
