The homeless man accused of recklessly killing John Noland told a state jury the longtime Hawaii sports broadcaster fell backward while trying to take his backpack.

Noland, 60, died June 15, six days after he hit the back of his head on a Chinatown sidewalk. He had been in a coma since an ambulance took him to The Queen’s Medical Center, and died after he was taken off life support.

Mark A. Coleman, 59, is on trial for manslaughter.

Coleman told the jury Noland “frequented the area, often on the weekends. I drank with him and I have gotten high with him.”

He said he was homeless and lived on Maunakea Street.

Before his early morning encounter with Noland on June 9, Coleman said he saw Noland with two other men smoking crack cocaine at the corner of Maunakea and North Pauahi streets.

Coleman went into Maunakea Liquor &Grocery store briefly at about 1:30 a.m. He said he left without buying anything because the two men who had been with Noland were in the store. He said one of them, known as Bald Head Dave, like him, is African-American and bald. He said he had $7 in his hand when he encountered Noland outside.

“He snatched the money out of my hand and made a reference to, what did I buy, what did I have in my backpack,” he said.

Coleman said he didn’t know what Noland was talking about but was scared because Noland was bigger and stronger than him. He said he is 5-feet-6-inches tall and weighed 135 pounds when police arrested him a day before Noland died.

Noland was 5-feet-10-inches tall and weighed 288 pounds when he died.

The prosecutor showed video from the surveillance camera at the entrance to a building about 30 feet away from Maunakea Liquor. It showed Noland and Coleman stopping in front of Sunflower Cafe. They partially disappear from camera view because the front of the restaurant is set back from the street.

Coleman told the jury the video shows Noland grabbing the backpack strap on his left shoulder, him kicking Noland in the shin in response and Noland reaching over his head for the backpack.

The video showed Coleman falling on top of Noland and money flying out of Noland’s left hand. Coleman then appeared to punch Noland, get up and retrieve the money and his backpack. He then lifted and released Noland’s head, retrieved his baseball cap and left.

Coleman said he went back to Maunakea Liquor to tell Bald Head Dave that Noland was on the sidewalk.

The video then showed a man arrive, rifle through Noland’s front pockets, turn Noland on his side, rifle through the back pockets and wait for the ambulance.

Honolulu Chief Medical Examiner Christopher Happy told the jury that Noland died from blunt force injury to his head combined with heart disease and obesity. He said other factors were acute alcohol intoxication and probable acute cocaine intoxication.

Happy said Noland had cocaine in his system within 72 hours of when a urine sample was taken at Queen’s for testing and that his blood alcohol concentration was 0.28, more than three times the legal threshold for drunk driving. He also said Noland had an enlarged heart from long-term cocaine use and his arteries were clogging.