A homeless man accused of stabbing a fisherman 101 times before leaving him to die on a pier has denied he was the attacker.
CCTV footage and DNA evidence allegedly links Forest Stevenson, 38, to the June 2024 murder of Andres Pancha, 45, in Melbourne's southeast.
But his lawyers deny he is the person shown in the footage after he pleaded not guilty to murder at the start of his Victorian Supreme Court trial.
Mr Pancha was approached by a man on Frankston Pier about 6am on June 29, 2024, crown prosecutor Kristie Churchill KC told jurors on Tuesday.
Mr Pancha, who had set up a fishing spot an hour earlier, was set upon with a knife and stabbed 101 times, including 31 blows to the head and neck, and 40 to the torso.
Another fisherman who was about 100 metres away called triple zero while the attacker fled the scene on foot.
Paramedics arrived at 6.12am to find Mr Pancha lying in a pool of blood with no pulse.
Police immediately reviewed CCTV footage and identified the attacker as a man in a green jacket. A police dog was involved in the search.
About 80 minutes after the fatal stabbing, Stevenson was found barefoot and lying in shrub.
He was allegedly dressed in a green jacket with blood-stained black pants and sporting an injury to his right hand, Ms Churchill said.
Stevenson immediately denied being the killer, saying he was not on the pier at the time of Mr Pancha's death and he did not know how the blood came onto his clothes.
Ms Churchill told jurors Mr Pancha was a likely contributor of the DNA found on the black pants.
She also said the CCTV of the man leaving the scene matched footage of Stevenson in the Frankston area before the attack.
But the man shown leaving the scene was not Stevenson, who was innocent of murder, defence barrister Amy Brennan told jurors.
He denied the pants he was arrested in were his and denied that he put the pants on himself, Ms Brennan said.
Stevenson was sleeping rough at the time of the alleged murder but he denied having a tent set up on the Frankston foreshore, Ms Brennan said.
She encouraged jurors to look carefully at all of the evidence before reaching any conclusions, reminding them that Stevenson was innocent until proven guilty.
The trial before Justice Diana Piekusis continues.
