Kiwi's window death 'an accident', accused claims

A Perth man accused of murdering a New Zealand man doesn't deny pushing him through a second-storey hotel window to his death, a trial was told yesterday.

The question facing a West Australian Supreme Court jury was whether it was an accident.

On the first day of the murder trial of Stefan Pahia Schmidt, 25, the jury was shown a security video of 29-year-old Tauranga man Andrew Marshall plunging to his death on the evening of May 8 last year.

The film showed a window being dislodged and falling from the second floor of the Ocean Beach Hotel in the Perth suburb of Cottesloe, shattering on the concrete below.

Mr Marshall followed, landing in a crumpled heap on the footpath.

He died hours later in hospital.

The video, which also featured the lead-up to the incident, was played to the court as prosecutor Amanda Forrester explained what was happening on the screen.

At one point, two young women identified as friends of Schmidt were seen to walk off camera, with Mr Marshall following them.

A large, bald man identified as Schmidt - who weighs 152kg - then strode in the same direction.

Ms Forrester told the court Schmidt argued with Mr Marshall over the girls and pushed him through the window.

In the video, Schmidt reappeared and seemed to briefly exchange words with a bar patron before punching him to the ground and throwing him across the floor.

The film then cut to outside the pub, showing Mr Marshall falling about 7m to the ground and security guards and patrons rushing to his aid.

The final frames, Ms Forrester told the court, showed Schmidt leaving the hotel from the ground floor and, "with barely a glance to his left, where Mr Marshall lay dying on the pavement ... he walks off into the night".

Schmidt has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyer, Tom Percy, said Mr Marshall's death was a tragic and dreadful accident.

- AAP