Mossman man, Joshua James Richards, 30, faced the Cairns Supreme Court yesterday on the opening day of his murder trial after an alleged fight between two men led to an arrow through the heart in October 2018.

It's alleged Mr Richards fatally shot 38-year-old Dennis Beattie with a bow and arrow, believing he had stolen items from him.

A week after he was allegedly murdered, on October 24 Mr Beattie’s body was found in a ditch at a Captain Cook Highway property, just south of Mossman, suffering a chest wound including a severed aorta and a “chop” injury to the back of his neck, a Cairns court heard.

Mr Richards has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Beattie.

However, did plead guilty to one count of interfering with a corpse and one count of arson before trial proceedings began, he will be sentenced on those charges at the end of the trial.

Crown Prosecutor Nathan Crane told the court that Richards had allegedly become increasingly agitated about things going missing and suspected Mr Beattie had stolen his GoPro camera and hunting knife.

Mr Crane told the Court Richards allegedly went looking for the items at Mr Beattie’s partner's place but couldn’t find them and left, but when the other man got home, he was incensed about it and drove to Richards’ place on 17 October.

The court was told an eyewitness heard a car door slam and a voice that sounded like Mr Beattie call out.

He said the witness said she saw Richards with a bow and arrow and saw him fire that arrow that struck Mr Beattie in the chest.

He told the court the witness said she then saw Mr Beattie pull the arrow from his chest, take a few steps, then collapse face forward onto a concrete slab.

“She fled, she didn’t see anything else that happened next,” Mr Crane said.

The trial is expected to run until Thursday next week.