Jurors in the Supreme Court manslaughter trial of Keniel Ingham will be asked to decide today whether he acted in self-defence, or, as a ruthless aggressor in the stabbing death of 27-year-old Jermaine (Red) Pitcher.

Ingham, 29, denies he killed Mr. Pitcher with two other men - Ryan Ball and Jamal Robinson - during a bload-soaked brawl outside Champion's night club on February 27, 2000.

Yesterday, Prosecutor Dorien Taylor and defence attorney Venous Telford laid out competing accounts of Ingham's role in Mr. Pitcher's death.

The prosecution contends Ingham held Mr. Pitcher while Ryan Ball stabbed the man viciously in the back, inflicting 19 separate wounds - including the fatal machete blow that pierced the victim's left lung and nearly emerged from the front of his chest.

Injuries received by Ingham, the prosecution claims, were inflicted by Ball as he stabbed wildly at the victim's back but missed, hitting instead Ingham who held the victim from the front - face to face.

Ingham claims he only held onto Mr. Pitcher out of self defence after Pitcher approached him swinging a weapon - a length of knotted rope with a piece of metal lock attached to the end - and hit him in the head.

Ingham said this attack followed a second unprovoked attack on Reid Street by Pitcher's half-brother Shane Fox after he left Champion's that morning.

Ingham says he stopped fighting when he realised he been "chopped" in the arm but did not see anyone stab Mr. Pitcher.

He also contends he does not know who inflicted his own wounds.

Testifying in his own defence on Monday, Ingham said emphatically he didn't know his friend "Tiger" Ball had a knife or that he intended to use it on the victim on February 27, 2000.

Yesterday, however, Mr. Taylor asked the jury to remember that Red Pitcher had 19 injuries according to the autopsy on his body.

"Would Red stand with his back to an assailant and allow a man to stab him that many times," he asked.

Mr. Taylor suggested that the defence presented by Ingham was "pure fiction" and had been "tailored" to fit the evidence heard over the course of the trial.

He referred the jury to the evidence of eyewitnesses who told the court they saw Red Pitcher being held by two men while he was stabbed "frantically" in the back.

And Mr. Taylor said even if Pitcher had been swinging the rope weapon, he could only have held it with one hand, leaving one side open to attack which one eyewitness said had occurred.

Experts testified the victim's blood was found on Ingham's right shoe and that it would have fallen there - by force of gravity - from either the victim or an object bearing his blood, Mr. Taylor reminded the court.

And he said if Ingham had been such an unwilling participant in the deadly fight, he could have run away, or run to Police, at many stages.

"What stopped him from taking simple evasive action - from saying `man, I have no problem with you'," asked Mr. Taylor. "He had a score to settle. He started up because he is a fighter and he knew his intentions.

"He knew he, Robinson and Ball were going to (get) Pitcher that night."

But Ms Telford asked the jury how responsible are any of us for the actions of our friends.

"All of us have a friend. Ask yourself how well do you know this friend. How well do you know any of your friends? Are you prepared to say today. . . that you are responsible for what that friend does?"

Ms Telford said there were nine reasons for the jury to doubt that the Crown had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

One of which, she suggested, was the unknown role in the deadly fight of Shane Fox.

She asked the jurors to consider why Fox's items of clothing were not sent to Canada for expert analysis along with that of Ingham, Robinson, Ball and Pitcher after Fox too arrived at hospital following the street battle.

"Now we'll never know what role Fox was playing. Is this because he was the brother of Jermaine Pitcher," she asked. "Was this investigation conducted on (the basis of) who is who's friend and who's out with whom?"

She also pointed out that Ryan Ball too was injured during the fights that morning. "If Ryan Ball didn't inflict his own injury, who did?"

Ms Telford said the court had heard conflicting stories from eyewitnesses - with one saying he saw the three attackers emerge from Ball's BMW and chase Pitcher, another that Ball alone went to his car and returned to the fight in process with a knife and a third claiming the man in orange - Ingham - did the stabbing.

And she said the prosecution claim that the killing of Mr. Pitcher had been "well planned and well executed" simply did not make any sense given the claim Ball allegedly stabbed his own friend, Ingham.

"You can't have it both ways," she said.

Finally, Ms Telford asked the jury to consider again the responsibility one has for a friend's actions.

Both Ball and Robinson have pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in the death.

The six-man, six-woman jury is expected to begin deliberations on Ingham's fate after receiving instructions on the law as it relates to the case this morning from Assistant Supreme Court Justice Archibald Warner.