They argued. They struggled. She fell. He panicked.
That's the scenario Gerard Baden-Clay's lawyers say could have played out at his and wife Allison's west Brisbane house on the night of April 19, 2012.
In the former real estate agent's latest bid to clear his name, his lawyers have suggested the 44-year-old accidentally killed his wife and tried to cover it up out of panic.
Defence barrister Michael Copley QC told Queensland's Court of Appeal the alternative theory couldn't be ruled out.
"The hypothesis that's suggested ... is this: that there was an unintended killing resulting from a confrontation and the confrontation arose out of an argument," Mr Copley told an appeal hearing, before a packed court on Friday.
"And the argument escalated to violence, as indicated by the marks on his face," Mr Copley said, in reference to damning fingernail scratches.
After accidentally killing Allison, Baden-Clay hid his wife's body under a bridge and pretended the scratches on his face were razor cuts, because he was afraid it would look like murder, it was suggested.
"The possibility is open that everything he did and said in the days after the killing was attributable to panic," Mr Copley said.
Mr Copley made the same argument for accidental death last year in a failed legal application to have Baden-Clay's murder charge thrown out part way during his trial.
Trial judge John Byrne allowed the murder charge to stand, saying Baden-Clay's behaviour after Allison's death looked "pretty odd" if she'd fallen and hit her head.
The jury wasn't aware of the legal argument.
But Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Michael Byrne QC on Friday argued the theory didn't match with Baden-Clay's continued denials.
He said the jury had been entitled to convict Baden-Clay of murder, based on the weight of circumstantial evidence.
Baden-Clay's extreme financial and relationship pressure "coalesced" on the night of April 19 when it's believed he killed Allison, according to the prosecutor.
"There was a real risk things were going to start to unwind," Mr Byrne said.
An inmate at Brisbane's Wolston Correctional Centre, Baden-Clay wasn't in court for Friday's two-hour hearing in front of 200 onlookers.
His father Nigel and sister Olivia Walton sat at one end of the room, separated from more than two dozen of Allison's family and supporters and many more law students who packed out the large Banco Court.
Many of Allison's supporters, including her mother Priscilla Dickie, wore yellow clothes or ribbons in memory of the mother-of-three and her favourite colour.
Court of Appeal Justices Catherine Holmes, Hugh Fraser and Robert Gotterson have reserved their judgment, which is expected within three months.
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