Michael Allan Jacobs, 49, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, was saying “strange” things as he recovered from gunshot wounds after the shooting on March 2, 2012, according to his girlfriend atthe time, Sharon Strudwick.

Ms Strudwick visited him about a month after the shooting, in which Jacobs was injured by shots from Senior Constable Rixon’s gun, the court has heard.

“Did it appear to you, from what he was telling you, that he didn’t know the police officer had died? Did he tell you that he thought he was in a hospital bed next to him?” Jacobs’ barrister, Tim Hoyle, SC, asked in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday. “Yeah,” Ms Strudwick said. 

“Did he talk about believing he’d been rescued from shark-infested waters?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that an example of some of the mad stuff he was talking about?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The jury has previously been told they will hear evidence that Jacobs’ conversation with Ms Strudwick in hospital was secretly recorded by police.

In his opening address, Crown prosecutor Pat Barrett said Jacobs was heard saying several things, including: “I wish I hadn’t have had the gun, wish I hadn’t have got the shits that morning ... I’ve been like it all my bloody life, get the shits over nothing.”

During her evidence, Ms Strudwick also said she found a package containing what she believed were bullets in the garage of the unit she shared with Jacobs in the days after the  shooting.

Earlier yesterday, the jury heard Terrance James Price, who was named by Jacobs as the person who shot Senior Constable Rixon, was previously jailed for manslaughter over the 2003 stabbing of a drug dealer.

Mr Price, who was initially suspected of shooting the Tamworth police officer, once plunged a knife into a drug dealer’s chest and killed him in a dispute over money and a mobile phone, the jury was told.

But Terrance Price denied there was any kind of similarity between that 2003 killing and the shooting of Senior Constable Rixon in Lorraine St, Tamworth, on the morning of March 2 last year.

Jacobs used to buy drugs from Mr Price and the jury heard Jacobs told police Mr Price was the gunman, but Mr Price denied any involvement when he was arrested at home soon after the shooting.

Mr Hoyle, SC, put a scenario before Mr Price yesterday morning, alleging the men had arranged to meet in Lorraine St that morning for a drug deal.

“I’m suggesting ... that in fact you did go to Lorraine St on that day at 8 o’clock and you were there when the accused arrived,” Mr Hoyle said. 

“I suggest that after (Mr Jacobs) pulled in, he got out of his car and you came down from wherever you had been ... and you were both facing each other ... and you were about to do a drug transaction with him when you saw a police officer arrive.

“You said ‘What’s the f---ing cop doing here?’ ... You shot the police officer at the same time the accused tried to grab the gun from you.

“Mr Hoyle then suggested Mr Price

ran away, after Senior Constable Rixon returned fire.”

Mr Price denied the events took place, saying: “That’s the first I’ve heard of it.”

Mr Hoyle then asked Mr Price about a dispute he had with a drug dealer in 2003.

“I suggest that on the 10th of February, 2003, you killed a man ... he was a drug dealer and had been supplying you with drugs?”

“Yeah,” Mr Price said.

The court heard Mr Price and the drug dealer fought on the street, and the man punched Mr Price, who pulled a knife from his shorts.

“You plunged that into this man’s chest, didn’t you?” Mr Hoyle asked.

“Yes,” Mr Price replied.

“After that happened you tried to run away?”

“Yes.”

But Mr Price denied he shot Senior Constable Rixon and ran away, in fear of being found with drugs.

The jury was told Mr Price was jailed for manslaughter over the 2003 stabbing and was released in either 2010 or 2011.

Mr Price’s girlfriend, Monica Sampson, told the court he was in bed with her the night before and on the morning of the shooting.

“He only left the bedroom to get a cuppa for me and him and get some water,” Ms Sampson said.

She acknowledged the couple had a “stormy” relationship at the time, but denied Mr Price had pressured her into giving him an alibi for the shooting.

The trial continues before Justice Richard Button