He twice said “I’m sorry” when George Wetmore came inside his house to say he had found Troy Wetmore, 35, dead in the driveway.

“I must have run over him or something, that’s what George said,” Cromb said in a police record of interview played for a District Court jury in Albury on Tuesday.

Cromb, 54, of St James in Victoria, has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Troy Wetmore at the property Carabobala Lodge, on the Culcairn road near Holbrook, on April 8 last year.

Crown prosecutor Max Pincott said there was criminal negligence in Cromb’s actions in that he had failed to exercise a duty of care to the deceased.

That was especially given there was a very high likelihood of death or serious action from Cromb’s driving.

What had aggravated that was the fact the defendant had just punched the intoxicated Mr Wetmore as he sat in Cromb’s utility before dragging him out and throwing him to the ground.

Mr Pincott said Cromb told the police that this must have caused Mr Wetmore to go under his Ford Ranger utility, which he bought new just before Christmas.

“He said he just got into the car and drove off,” he said.

Cromb was angry because Mr Wetmore, who was later found to have a blood alcohol content of  0.262 when he died, took the utility without his knowledge.

“He wanted to go to town to get a bottle of bourbon,” he told police.

Defence barrister Brad Hughes, SC, said there was no dispute that Cromb had driven over Mr Wetmore, causing his instant death.

But Mr Hughes said that did not constitute the manslaughter charge as there was no criminal liability “for what was a tragic accident”.

“Anthony Cromb does not know how he came to run over his workmate’s son.”

Cromb lived in a caravan next to the house while he did work for Roads and Maritime Services at Holbrook, returning home on weekends.

Cromb expressed his dismay at what happened several times during a police interview a few hours later.

"I was cranky that he took the car, yes, but not to kill anybody,” he said.

“(Troy Wetmore) was pretty high on stuff …. but he wasn’t angry or anything.”

The first witness was in the form of a statement from the now late George Wetmore.

The trial before Judge Robert Toner continues on Wednesday.