Mr Gardner said he was shocked when his employee was first charged with murder - but later acquitted because there was insufficient evidence to convict him - after police arrested him at a road block on the Napier-Taupo road.
Mr Gardner recalled how Hallett had been taken to hospital with a gunshot wound he allegedly inflicted on himself while trying to flee.
"It was strange, especially when I got a call pretty early in the morning to put some clothes on and come up to the hospital," Mr Gardner said. "The police wanted to see me because I was one of the [licensees] of the business.
"We had no issues when we employed him. It was quite a shock to say the least."
Another Weekend Herald source said Hallett used to play drums in a Rotorua jazz band called Dr Jazz in the early to mid-1980s.
Hallett also used to fill-in when required for other bands around the Bay of Plenty area at that time.
The woman also described Hallett as being well-dressed and spoken.
He also dabbled in art and photography, she said, and some of his work had been commissioned by the Rotorua District Council for a calendar in the 1980s.
Taupo Mayor Rick Cooper, whose wife was a nurse at Taupo Hospital when Hallett was brought in, said Hallett was a well-known face around Taupo at the time.
"At that time, it was seen as a horrendous, unnecessary murder ... it was an act of an animal. But everybody had since forgotten about it and nobody had been charged - it was a bit like Mona Blades," he said.
A passing truckie is understood to have found Mr Tahu's body lying in a pool of blood.
He was taken to Taumarunui Hospital, where he died of gunshot wounds to his head and shoulder.
"We had all moved on and we are very pleased that the police don't move on - and that they keep reviewing their cold cases."
Two of the former police detectives involved in the arrest - Rex Hawkins and Doug Scott - are understood to be giving evidence in the new case against Hallett at the High Court at Rotorua.
The Weekend Herald earlier revealed the main witness in the case against him is his estranged wife.
Police say Hallett admitted the killing to her after driving to Wellington.
Under old laws, the Crown could not compel a spouse to give evidence without the consent of the husband or wife charged.
The law gave further protection to spouses in any court proceedings by protecting disclosures made during a marriage by one partner to the other.
But a 2006 law change did away with that protection and led to Bay of Plenty police laying the murder charge in December.
Hallett has been remanded on bail and was not at his Rotorua home when the Weekend Herald visited, nor did he return phone calls last night.
He is due back in court on April 17.
