Co Tyrone Spar supermaket boss Shaun Fitzpatrick was so badly beaten paramedics thought he had been shot in the head, a court heard on Tuesday.
The claim was made at the start of the Dungannon Crown Court trial of two 26-year-old Lithuanian men, Andrius Dunauskas and Ramunas Balseris, who blame each other for the "brutal and sustained assault" on Mr Fitzpatrick.
His lifeless, bruised and bloodied body was found in an alleyway off the Donaghmore Road, Dungannon in the early hours of 23 March 2008, after Dunauskas, of Lisnahull Road in the Co Tyrone town, flagged down a passing motorist.
First treated as a witness and then arrested as a suspect, Dunauskas allegedly claimed that while walking home his friend Balseris wanted to fight and suggested attacking Mr Fitzpatrick, 32, which he did by punching him.
Dunauskas also admitted punching him, but claimed Balseris then kicked him in the head before robbing him of £5 and a mobile phone.
However, Balseris, from Altmore Drive, who gave himself up to police the following day, claimed when they saw Mr Fitzpatrick, Dunauskas lashed out at him with a martial arts type kick, before repeatedly kicking him.
Balseris claimed he tried to stop his friend, and took no part in the brutal attack and only left Mr Fitzpatrick after checking for and finding a pulse.
Prosecuting QC Stephen Fowler, who claimed the two friends attacked Mr Fitzpatrick before dragging him over 20 meters up the alleyway, said when paramedics checked his body "for signs of life ... tragically there were none".
He added that the supermarket manager has been "repeatedly and unmercifully beaten about the head ... and was so covered in blood, injured and badly beaten that the paramedics checked in case he had been shot in the head".
Mr Fowler also told the jury of seven men and five women that there was a "considerable amount of blood dispersed throughout" the whole area of the alleyway.
Mr Fowler said a post mortem revealed that Mr Fitzpatrick had 36 separate injuries to his head, neck upper chest and body, with some patterned bruising suggesting it came from stomping from the sole of a shoe.
"He also suffered injury to his brain with bleeding into the brain. The accumulation and severity of these injuries lead to Mr Fitzpatrick's death," said Mr Fowler.
Earlier the Crown lawyer claimed that Dunauskas, who although a foreign national played for the local GAA team, tried to clash with Mr Fitzpartrick while both were drinking in Donaghy's Bar in William Street before the fatal attack.
He also claimed that there is a "clear and compelling forensic link" between the two accused and the blood and DNA of Mr Fitzpatrick.
The case continues.
© UTV News