A court has been told a Dunedin man died as a result of his health and gross intoxication, not because he was assaulted by his flatmate.
Jason Karl Blackler in the Dunedin High Court. Photo: RNZ / Tim Brown
Jason Karl Blackler is on trial in the High Court in Dunedin for the manslaughter of Alan Fahey at a Dunedin house in October 2016.
The 48-year-old has denied the charge and an alternate charge of wounding with intent to injure.
His defence lawyer, Anne Stevens, said the Crown cannot prove her client was responsible for Mr Fahey's death or that he assaulted him.
"We have an older, angry, grossly drunk man in a house that you'll see is so messy it was hazardous, with severe coronary disease who could, in that state, in that house, have fallen over and injured himself at any point and have had a heart attack and died."
The Crown alleged he killed the victim by assaulting him at a Brockville residential address which the pair shared at the time of Mr Fahey's death.
Mr Blackler faces an alternate charge of wounding with intent to injure.
Crown prosecutor Richard Smith said the pair spent the day drinking together.
Mr Smith said an associate of the pair who visited that day left when the atmosphere deteriorated.
The court heard Mr Blackler became enraged after Mr Fahey made disparaging remarks about his terminally ill sister.
The trial is set down for two weeks.
