A man who was allegedly beaten to death by two friends was found in a pool of blood on his kitchen floor with a fruit cake on his head, a Supreme Court jury has been told.

Leslie Kevin Talbot, 51, and Eldon Wayne Crouch, 48, have gone on trial in Adelaide's Supreme Court accused of murdering Mr Crouch's housemate David Saunders at their Hayborough home in February last year.

The jury was told Mr Saunders was found lying on his back on his kitchen floor in a pool of blood.

In his opening address, prosecutor Jim Pearce said Mr Saunders sustained at least six blows to the head as well as two knife stab wounds to his neck.

"The fractures on the prosecution case suggest substantial impact, either from a hard blunt object or by someone kicking or stomping on Mr Saunders' head," he said.

"The distribution of blood at the crime scene suggests that a number of this blows were delivered to Mr Saunders as he was lying on the floor of the kitchen."

The court also heard that bizarrely, Mr Saunders was found with a fruit cake on his head.

"One or the other of the people who killed him placed a fruit cake on his head before they left him for dead on his kitchen floor," Mr Pearce said

Police found a blood-smeared carpet sweeper next to Mr Saunders' body and a saucepan which had a big dent in it, the court heard.

The court heard Mr Talbot had been drinking heavily and that during the afternoon police had been called to a disturbance at his house.

David Saunders got beers out of the police car when the dropped Leslie Talbot to his house and was found dead hours later. ( Supplied: SA Police )

It heard in order to "keep the peace" and defuse an argument with his adult son, police drove Mr Talbot to a friend's house — the home Mr Crouch shared with Mr Saunders.

"Mr Saunders got the beers out of the police car and the two of the them, he and Mr Talbot, then walked back down the driveway to the back of the house," Mr Pearce said.

"As police drove off their last sighting of the men was of the two of them laughing.

"Members of the jury, the laughter that police saw as they drove off didn't last long."

On the prosecution's case, Mr Talbot became increasingly aggressive throughout the afternoon and Mr Saunders was found unresponsive on the kitchen floor about eight hours after police left.

Mr Talbot and Mr Crouch were arrested later the same night after they were found at Mr Talbot's house with blood on their clothes.

Mr Pearce said subsequent DNA testing revealed the blood was from Mr Saunders.

"It wasn't just blood that forensic examiners saw on the boots," he said.

"They saw hair, clotted blood and tissue like debris on those boots."

He said while there had been some suggestion that the men had a dispute over a woman, it was likely that a motive may never be known.

"Some crimes, this one being perhaps one of them, are just senseless," he said.

The trial is expected to run for two weeks.