Trial ends for Bruce Anthony Coss, accused of murdering Darren Royce Willis in Bingara

The judge-alone murder trial of Bruce Anthony Coss wrapped up in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday, with the defence closing its case.

Coss is accused of bludgeoning 45-year-old Darren Royce Willis to death in 2010.

Skull fragments were located at the bottom of a waterfall in Doctors Creek, near Bingara, last year.

Defence barrister Michael King told the court a full forensic examination of the body may have helped the Crown, but it also could have "completely exculpated the accused".

"Only fragments of the remains have been found in an imperfect state," he told the court.

Mr King said Willis could have been "shot, poisoned, fell of the falls, pushed off the falls".

"All speculative because that evidence was lost to us," he said.

Both the Crown and defence called forensic anthropologists as expert witnesses, who prepared reports about the fragments.

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Two key Crown witnesses, Bingara residents Scott Marle and Robert Stonestreet, gave evidence in the trial that they were there on the night of the alleged murder, but Mr King slammed them as "not great".

"Each is without credibility and reliability," he submitted.

Mr King said there may have been some kind of dispute between Coss and Mr Willis, which wasn't unusual, and something may have happened on the roadway, but Mr Marle and Mr Stonestreet had later "recreated a memory" when they realised it was about the same time Mr Willis disappeared.

"They put two and two together and got 42," Mr King said, adding that they were recalling events years and "how many water pipes of cannabis" later.

He said Mr Stonestreet's claim that he saw Coss strike Mr Willis with a bat was a "critical issue" in the trial and the "only piece of evidence" that anyone saw Coss do anything with a bat.

Mr King said it was an "impossibility" that Coss would physically have been able to get Mr Willis' body onto the back of a ute on his own and drive away.

"The obvious answer is, it didn't happen," he said.

The Crown closed its case last week, arguing Coss murdered Mr Willis on a Bingara street, then dumped his body in the creek area.

Coss was arrested in 2019 after a fresh investigation into Mr Willis' disappearance, and has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The trial resumed last week after it was suspended last year after new evidence was discovered.

Justice Hament Dhanji is expected to hand down his verdict in the coming weeks.

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