After Bruce Saunders was retrieved from a woodchipper, Sharon Graham asked a friend to claim she was still with her ex-partner "because of the insurance", a court has been told.
Graham, 61, and Gregory Lee Roser, 63, have pleaded not guilty to murder after Mr Saunders, 54, died while working on a property north of Brisbane in November 2017.
Graham is accused of asking Roser and another man, Peter Koenig, to kill Mr Saunders and make it look like an accident to claim her ex-partner's $750,000 life insurance policy.
The jury was on Wednesday shown police video of Mr Saunders' legs protruding from the chipper at the Goomboorian property near Gympie after he had been clearing trees with Roser and Koenig.
Friend Kim Simpson told Brisbane Supreme Court Graham had split with Mr Saunders but moved back into his Nambour home, living in separate bedrooms.
Graham rang her on the night of Mr Saunders' death telling her "one of the guys had fallen into the woodchipper", Ms Simpson said.
"She very upset," she said.
A "week or two" later Graham asked Ms Simpson to write a letter to her lawyer after earlier mentioning that Mr Saunders "had left everything to her", the court heard.
"She asked me if I could write a letter to her lawyer stating that her and Bruce were in a relationship at the time of his death ... because of the insurance," Ms Simpson told court.
Asked if she wrote the letter, Ms Simpson said: "No, because it wasn't true".
Graham's friend Leonie Whyte was visiting at the time of the tragedy and was told by Koenig and Roser that Mr Saunders' death was an accident.
"They did say that Bruce was messing around with something at the machinery and he wasn't being very careful that day or something to that effect," she told the court.
Graham told another friend that Mr Saunders had been texting her before his phone fell into the woodchipper and he may have died trying to retrieve it, the court heard.
"Can't talk I'm devastated Bruce has passed away. He was texting me when his phone must have drop into the wood mulcher and he must of went to grab," Graham's text to the friend said.
"Police have said it is tragic accident. Both guys have been vomiting all night.
"As Greg turned around to pick up tree stump he just push button to stop but too late.
"Oh my God I am so sick ... Been crying all night. I'm devo."
Graham has been accused of being in a "love quadrangle" with Roser, Koenig and Mr Saunders, plotting the latter's murder for months.
The trial before Justice Martin Burns continues.
