IT was a bit after 8pm on June 9, 2021 and the opening game of the State of Origin series was just starting when there was a knock at the front door of a unit in Stockton and a voice called out "Stacey".
Then, a few seconds later, as grandmother Stacey Klimovitch swung open the door there was a flash and a loud bang and the 61-year-old yelled: "I've just been shot".
Prosecutors say the man at the front door was accused Canberra hitman Jason Paul Hawkins, now 48, who had been hired to execute the "targeted and premeditated" shooting in Queen Street by Stuart Campbell over ongoing animosity with Mrs Klimovitch.
The defence case is that while Mr Hawkins was captured on CCTV getting into a Holden Commodore used to transport the gunman to Stockton on the night of the shooting, he got dropped off a short time later and did not make the trip across Stockton bridge.
"Yeah I'll say I was there, that is me," Mr Hawkins told police in response to seeing the CCTV footage. "But I got out of the car and got dropped off just up the road."
He also told police he had been "stitched up" and had only come up to Newcastle to help Campbell with some roofing.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, has told the jury the murder stemmed from ongoing animosity between Mrs Klimovitch and Campbell, the ex-partner of Mrs Klimovitch's daughter.
Mr Hatfield took the jury through the breakdown of the relationship between Campbell and Mrs Klimovitch's daughter, the birth of Campbell's child and two "important incidents" that occurred at a house in Argenton in the months before the shooting.
Mr Hatfield said in March, after the birth of his child and while his former partner was still in hospital, Campbell went to the house at Argenton and damaged property before telling Mrs Klimovitch "I'm going to do you in".
Mrs Klimovitch responded: "Go your hardest", Mr Hatfield told the jury.
Then, sometime later, when Campbell came to the house at Argenton to visit his newborn child, he and Mrs Klimovitch had an argument outside that ended with Mrs Klimovitch slapping Campbell.
Mr Hatfield told the jury Campbell "developed significant animosity" towards Mrs Klimovitch and approached at least one other man to kill her.
But he alleged Campbell eventually recruited Mr Hawkins to be the gunman and another man to drive him to and from Stockton.
Meanwhile, while the murder plot was being executed, Campbell made sure he had an alibi, Mr Hatfield said.
Campbell was charged with murder but died before facing trial.
The jury on Tuesday heard evidence from Mrs Klimovitch's daughter, who was inside the house in Queen Street when her mum answered a knock at the door.
"I honestly thought it was my sister and I told mum that someone was at the door," Mrs Klimovitch's daughter said. "She obviously heard it and was walking towards the door already and then I heard someone yell out 'Stacey' and by the time she opened the door there was a bang, a flash in my peripheral vision and I heard mum yell out 'I've just been shot'."
Mrs Klimovitch's daughter said she ran down the hallway to see her mother still standing with the door open. She slammed it shut, shut the back door and went to her mother's aid.
She said there was a second knock on the door and she was "terrified" the gunman had returned, but it was neighbours who had heard the shooting and come to help.
She gave evidence she immediately thought Campbell was involved and said during their relationship she had suspected him of using drugs and being unfaithful.
She described Campbell as "secretive and manipulative" and a "gaslighter".
"He was very good at making people think they were crazy," she said.
The trial continues.
