The court has heard that James Cooper, 25, from Hampton Lucy, near Warwick, and James Kouzaris, 24, from Northampton, were killed when they walked into Newtown in Sarasota in April last year.

James Cooper James Kouzaris had been shot six times.

Opening the prosecution case after three days of jury selection at Sarasota Court, Assistant State Attorney Ed Brodsky said friends Mr Kouzaris and Mr Cooper were in the second week of a three-week holiday.

The men had been out for a meal with Mr Cooper's parents, then went drinking on their own.

The pair left the Gator Club in downtown Sarasota, where they had been drinking, at about 2am.

Shawn Tyson in the courtroom in Florida

He said when police and fire and rescue services arrived at the scene, on Carver Court, in the public housing project known as The Courts, they found the men on either side of the road.

They had been shot dead.

Prosecutor Ed Brodsky

Mr Brodsky said James Cooper was shirtless, clutching his shirt in his hand, his blue jeans pulled down about mid-thigh level, and still possessing his wallet, money and his cellphone and his camera.

Across the street police found the body of James Kouzaris with his pants pulled down to the thigh level, also shirtless and with his money still in his possession.

Prosecutor Brodsky said:

"Autopsies showed Mr Cooper was shot four times and Mr Kouzaris had been shot twice in the back."