{"id":567172,"date":"2026-03-27T05:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567172\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T05:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T05:42:14","slug":"jordan-macdonald-accused-of-murdering-jai-gray-and-dumping-body-in-abandoned-quarry-denied-bail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/567172\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Macdonald, accused of murdering Jai Gray and dumping body in abandoned quarry, denied bail"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man accused of killing his roommate in a “frenzied” stabbing attack before throwing him off a cliff at an abandoned south-east Queensland quarry has been denied bail.<\/p>\n

WARNING: This story includes the name and image of an Indigenous person who has died.<\/p>\n

Two men, including Jordan Macdonald, are charged with the murder of Jai Gray and interfering with his corpse.<\/p>\n

In June 2024, the 35-year-old’s body was discovered near Mount Ngungun\u00a0in Queensland’s Glass House Mountains, north of Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jai Gray, who was allegedly murdered in 2024. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

On Friday, Mr Macdonald made an application for Supreme Court bail in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

Appearing via video link from prison and representing himself, the 24-year-old told the court the alleged facts of the case were “heavily disputed”.<\/p>\n

“As per the crown’s own affidavit, there is a litany of withdrawn, altered, second-guessed and revised witness statements about key matters,” he said.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Matthew Le Grand told the court the crown case was “built upon the evidence” of an eyewitness, to what was an alleged “planned killing”.<\/p>\n

Mr Le Grand said he anticipated there would be an “attack on the credibility and reliability” of this witness by the defence.<\/p>\n

“However, [the eyewitness] evidence is buttressed in significant ways by evidence from a number of different sources,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Le Grand told the court those sources included another witness and an alleged confession by Mr Macdonald to a friend.<\/p>\n

The court heard an autopsy found Mr Gray suffered at least 40 sharp instrument injuries which caused his death.<\/p>\n

Mr Le Grand told the court this “confirms the method of killing” as alleged by the eyewitness.<\/p>\n

“That being a frenzied attack with knives,” he said.<\/p>\n

The court heard that the eyewitness was also the person who led police to Mr Gray’s body.<\/p>\n

Accused allegedly spoke of ‘having revenge’\"Police<\/p>\n

Police divers on-scene at Glass House Mountains to inspect the quarry, following the discovery of Jai Gray’s body in June 2024. (ABC News: Josh Dye)<\/p>\n

Surveillance footage and telecommunications data also allegedly linked Mr Macdonald to the area at the time, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Mr Le Grand told the court there were also alleged communications between Mr Macdonald and his co-accused a week prior, in which they spoke of “having revenge” on Mr Gray.<\/p>\n

“Which again sits comfortably with evidence [the eyewitness] will give, that this was in fact a planned assassination,” he said.<\/p>\n

The court heard Mr Macdonald and his co-accused had been living with Mr Gray, but instead of paying rent they were allegedly providing him with cannabis.<\/p>\n

The trio’s relationship was allegedly strained, and Mr Gray was planning to evict them, the court heard.<\/p>\n

Mr Macdonald initially denied any involvement in the death, the court heard, but he later allegedly told police he and his co-accused had confronted Mr Gray about various accusations.<\/p>\n

The court heard he blamed his co-accused for the stabbing, but allegedly admitted to throwing Mr Gray’s body off a cliff, destroying his phone, and helping to burn other evidence.<\/p>\n

\"Emergency<\/p>\n

Emergency services at Glass House Mountains after Jai Gray’s body was discovered. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Mr Le Grand told the court due to the “the savage nature of the offending” coupled with “a willingness to interfere with witnesses” and Mr Macdonald’s alleged discussions about leaving the country before his arrest, he should not be released.<\/p>\n

In response, Mr Macdonald told the court the prosecution’s submissions had been “cherry-picked” and there were credibility issues with witness statements.<\/p>\n

He told the court he was “a completely changed person” in a “healthier state” since his arrest, and if granted bail, would live with a family friend in Brisbane and would seek employment.<\/p>\n

“I very much would need the chance to fight my case and prove my innocence, which is proving more and more difficult while I am in jail,” he said.<\/p>\n

Justice Paul Smith told the court despite what Mr Macdonald submitted, “there is evidence that he was involved” but accepted there may be a credibility issue.<\/p>\n

“The case doesn’t seem weak \u2026 on this preliminary view it seems like a reasonable case at this point,” he said<\/p>\n

Mr Macdonald’s bail was refused. He is due to face a committal hearing in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A man accused of killing his roommate in a “frenzied” stabbing attack before throwing him off a cliff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,279020,254954,279019,44],"class_list":{"0":"post-567172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-glass-house-mountains","11":"tag-jai-gray","12":"tag-jordan-macdonald","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}