The man accused of bashing and killing 68-year-old Canberra man Douglas Creek in 2022 will now never face justice.
Lawyers for 51-year-old Grant Oldfield have told the ACT Supreme Court he died in December last year.
Mr Creek was found dead in his Kambah home after he had discharged himself from hospital, where police had taken him with serious head injuries after he was beaten up.
It was always a complicated case, not least because Mr Oldfield initially pleaded not guilty, then changed that to plead guilty, before signalling he wanted to apply to change his plea back to not guilty again.
Victim defended pregnant neighbour: court documents
Newly released documents reveal allegations the fight was part of ongoing tensions at the government housing block where Mr Creek lived, mostly between Mr Oldfield's mother and another neighbour.
The documents reveal Mr Creek was a heavy smoker but did not drink or take drugs, and lived alone with his two cats.
On the day of the bashing, court documents showed Mr Creek had been talking to the other neighbour who had just returned home, when Mr Oldfield took exception to the pair looking in his car where they thought they had seen a light.
The documents said Mr Oldfield began yelling and threatening the female neighbour, saying he would make sure she lost the baby she was pregnant with.
"I'm coming down to get you now, slut," Mr Oldfield was reported to have said to the woman.
Mr Creek replied, saying "Oi, enough of that. Don't you speak to her like that," before Mr Oldfield began threatening him.
"You wanna stand up for her there too, do you mate? Well I'll get you too," Mr Oldfied reportedly said.
In the Crown case it was alleged that Mr Creek urged the woman to go upstairs before he tried to get into his own unit, but he was punched and kicked by Mr Oldfield, as he protested his age and asked him to stop.
At the end of the assault, it was claimed Mr Oldfield sat Mr Creek up on the bottom step and apologised, saying he thought Mr Creek was someone else, and asked why he was sticking up for the woman.
'You don't dob in a mate, you know'
When police arrived, court documents showed Mr Creek gave a very different account of what had happened.
"I heard some noise outside, which woke me up, so I decided to go outside to have a cigarette," Mr Creek had told officers.
"I was near my garage and I was walking back towards my unit. I felt dizzy and stumbled."
"I fell onto the [male] and grabbed onto him to steady myself. He became aggressive and pushed me away because he thought I was trying to start something."
"I stumbled and hit my head on the wall there and then on the ground."
"The male understood that I was grabbing onto him to stop myself falling and he helped me up towards the stairs."
"That's when I've stumbled again and hit my eye on this railing."
But later in hospital, he reportedly told staff what he had said to police was not accurate and he had been assaulted by "an individual whose mother lives in the same government housing complex as him".
The documents also showed that when asked by another neighbour why he had lied to police he said, "Oh, you don't dob in a mate, you know".
The Crown case said Mr Creek suffered around 20 blows, including being kicked in the head which caused bleeding on the brain.
He died 36 hours after the attack.
The Supreme Court will now have to formally close the case.