At the murder trial of John Douglas Robinson, Clifford Fair's cause of death was the focus of testimony on Friday.
Robinson has pleaded not guilty to murder in Fair's 2008 death, but guilty to committing an indignity to a body.
While Robinson has admitted to hitting Fair with a metal pipe, he claims he didn't hit him hard.
He has told the court he then pushed him, which is when Fair allegedly hit his head on a wall and collapsed, apparently dead.
Robinson has admitted he then buried Fair in the backyard of his Princess Street apartment, then later dug up the body, dismembered it and buried it again.
On Friday, question arose at the trial about whether it's possible that Fair was buried alive.
The pathologist who examined Fair's body found no skull fracture and no evidence of a brain hemorrhage, but decomposition limited findings.
A crime scene expert also found little blood at the alleged murder scene.
The defence called another pathologist on Friday, who confirmed blunt force trauma didn't cause Fair's death and that it was doubtful he died of blood loss.
As for whether Fair could have been alive when he was initially buried, the pathologist said an autopsy report described granular material in his larynx, but said he couldn't speculate as to whether it was dirt because it wasn't analyzed.
In the end he reiterated that the cause of death for Fair has not been determined, and added that sometimes people can drop dead with no explanation.
