A Sydney builder said to have been delusional when he wrote diary notes about torturing a neighbour has been found guilty of murdering him in 2011.
Elefterios "Terry" Fantakis, 43, had denied murdering 52-year-old Elisha Karmas, whose body has never been found.
Andrew Keith Woods, 41, and Derek Cheng, 26, pleaded not guilty to being accessories after the fact.
After almost two weeks of deliberations, the NSW Supreme Court on Friday found Fantakis and Wood guilty and acquitted Mr Cheng.
Prosecutor Lou Lungo said Fantakis had developed a strong hatred for Mr Karmas, who was mediating in a family financial dispute.
He alleged Fantakis killed him on August 11, 2011, at a Punchbowl home, before his body was disposed of in the Georges River near Campbelltown.
But Fantakis testified that on that day Mr Karmas offered to help him and Mr Cheng do some work at the home.
"Suddenly Sam said 'I have just remembered there is something I have to do. I have to leave'," Fantakis said.
He said he had neither harmed nor killed him and had never seen him again.
The jury was told of a diary in which Fantakis wrote entries including: "I kicked him off his feet and punched him in the throat to incapacitate him ... I torture him."
But he testified the writings were "ludicrous" and a form of therapy to deal with stress.
His lawyer Iain Todd submitted the bizarre writings were "crazy talk"
Psychiatric evidence revealed that over time, after Mr Karmas went missing, his client's mental health deteriorated and he was placed on various medications.
He developed delusional psychotic ideas and his strange writings included notes of people being involved in heinous crimes and thinking a bug was planted in his head.
"None of these writings, I say, can you accept as being factually correct in saying that they are admissions by Mr Fantakis," Mr Todd said.
Fantakis also told the jury that on the evening of Mr Karmas's disappearance, he drove his van to meet up with Woods and they travelled to visit Woods' grandmother where they stayed until about 1.30am.
They then left to go to the Campbelltown area to dispose of bags containing soil and cannabis.
On the way back he had some problems with the van, so he dropped it off at the mechanics and later gave it "a quick clean with the hose" because it was so filthy.
The van was a "mess" particularly as a friend's dog had been sick in it, he said.
Justice Helen Wilson adjourned the case to June 4.
Australian Associated Press
