A Brisbane man has denied killing his flatmate during a fistfight on their back patio over unpaid rent.

October 30, 2018

A Brisbane man held his housemate in a headlock until he stopped moving after tensions about unpaid rent erupted on their back patio during the Easter weekend two years ago, a court has heard.

As his trial got underway on Tuesday, Aaron Llewellyn Jones, 31, denied the manslaughter of Joel Russell Charlesworth, 30, in the first minutes of Easter Sunday on March 27, 2016.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Farnden opened her case against Jones in the Brisbane Supreme Court saying while the two men lived together in Murarrie, they weren’t friends and both had been drinking before the fight.

Following weeks of tension, the pair began arguing through the closed backdoor of the three-bedroom rental duplex before Mr Charlesworth barged though and the fight broke out, she said.

“(Jones) said he got Joel in a headlock to stop himself from getting hit. He said he held him in a headlock as long as he could, and when he stopped punches were thrown everywhere,” Ms Farnden said.

They began wrestling on the ground where Jones, who again had hold of Mr Charlesworth, heard heavy breathing from his housemate.

“Joel wasn’t struggling anymore and (Jones) realised he was knocked out,” Ms Farnden said.

During a telephone call to triple-zero at 11.45 pm, Jones told the emergency operator his housemate was no longer breathing.

Paramedics arrived 10 minutes later but were unable to revive Mr Charlesworth. He was declared dead about 12.15 am.

Ms Farnden told the jury that during the post-mortem examination, pathologists found Mr Charlesworth had suffered from a blockage of one of the arteries feeding blood into his heart.

So severe was the 80 to 85 per cent blockage, which reduced blood flow to his heart, any emotional or physical stress could easily have led to a fatal heart attack, she said.

The pathology report also found a neck compression could have caused a heart attack.

As a result, the pathologist’s report could not determine the cause of Mr Charlesworth’s death, Ms Farndon said.

However, she said the jury would be able to infer that the fighting or restraining of the victim was a significant or substantial cause of the cardiac arrest.

The trial, which is set down for four days, continues on Wednesday.