A man on trial for murder has told the Christchurch High Court he will take the stand in his defence following 70 witnesses.
Peter Carroll has accepted he caused the death of Marcus Tucker but told the court he had no intention of killing him.
Mr Carroll appeared in the dock on Monday where he pled not guilty.
The Crown alleges Mr Carroll murdered Marcus Tucker by striking him repeatedly with a wheel lock while he slept at an Addington house in April last year.
The 36-year-old's body was found burnt, hands tied behind his back, wrapped in carpet and dumped near the shores of Lake Ellesmere south of Christchurch on Anzac Day.
The Crown says the fatal bashing was retribution for a drugs robbery that Mr Carroll believed Mr Tucker, whose nickname was Ruckus, had committed.
"Unfortunately for him he was not the Ruckus involved in the burglary," Crown prosecutor Claire Boshier says.
Mr Carroll's defence counsel Tim Fournier said while the 52-year-old accepts that he killed Mr Tucker, there was no murderous intent.
"The defence focus here is what he has done is not murder, it's manslaughter," he says.
Mr Fournier told the court that Mr Carroll intends to give evidence in his defence during the trial.
Newshub.
