Bruce Anthony Coss walks from court after being found not guilty of murdering neighbour Darren Willis in Bingara in 2010

Bruce Anthony Coss was found innocent in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday morning of killing Darren Royce Willis in Bingara in 2010.

Coss had long denied killing his Bingara neighbour, despite having a history of arguments and punch ups with him when they lived next door to one another in Bassat Street, Bingara.

Justice Hament Dhanji accepted there was no issue that there was "significant animosity" between Coss and Mr Willis, but he found significant inconsistencies attached to the evidence of the witnesses in the case.

He said the two Crown witnesses Scott Marle and Robert Stonestreet - who were both charged and convicted of concealing the murder - were "affected by drugs and alcohol on the night" in question.

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Justice Dhanji said both had given "inconsistent versions over time. There are inconsistencies between them, and inconsistencies within their own evidence".

He said that meant, together with lengthy telephone recordings which he found "did not advance the Crown case", that he could not find the offence of murder proven.

"I cannot be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the guilt of the accused," he said, in a judgement spanning more than an hour after a judge-alone trial.

Coss had been on trial since last year but the case was sensationally delayed after a Bingara local discovered the partial remains of Mr Willis.

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

The elderly farmer had gone looking in the area, after publicity of the trial. He told the court he had previously remembered seeing a bone when he was looking for missing cattle many years ago.

Testing later confirmed them to be the partial remains of Mr Willis, who's body was never found in the wake of his disappearance.

Justice Dhanji pointed to the evidence of a forensic anthropologist who found that the "deceased suffered at least two blunt force traumas causing damage to his skull".

But he said there is clearly the possibility of damage to the skull from the fall from "the top of the waterfall".

He said the evidence was that Mr Willis led a "nomadic lifestyle", "liked to drink" and "didn't mind a punch up".

The new police investigation into Mr Willis' disappearance and suspected murder was launched in 2018 by Moree detectives when the new witness evidence came to light.

The Crown closed its case in late March, relying on the reports of Marle and Stonestreet as well as telephone intercepts, arguing Coss murdered Mr Willis on a Bingara street with a bat, then dumped his body in the creek area.

Defence barrister Michael King disputed the Crown's case, pulling apart witness evidence and the forensic "evidence that was lost to us" through the passage of time.

Coss was arrested in Bingara in 2019, and spent a lengthy stint behind bars on remand. He had pleaded not guilty to murder and maintained his innocence throughout the police investigation and judge-alone trial.

Coss, who has been on bail to stay out of Bingara for more than a year, walked from court.

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