Helen Dansie, 66, drowned after her wheelchair toppled into a pond in the Adelaide parklands in 2017, with prosecutors alleging her 70-year-old husband pushed her into the water.

The trial was shut down in May, after Peter Dansie's defence successfully argued that his right to remain silent had been compromised.

At the beginning of his new Supreme Court trial on Tuesday, Dansie again entered a not guilty plea to the charge of murder.

Justice David Lovell then agreed to accept 13 days of transcript as evidence rather than recalling some of the witnesses involved up to the point of the mistrial, including the couple's son.

Opening the Crown case, prosecutor Jim Pearce said it was "no accident" that Mrs Dansie's wheelchair ended up in the pond.

"She entered the pond at the hand of the accused," he said.

Mr Pearce said Dansie told police he had taken his wife to the Adelaide parklands and her wheelchair toppled into the water when its brakes were disengaged - but that was an implausible story.

He said Dansie briefly climbed into the pond after pushing his wife but then got out to call triple zero.

The court heard he told an operator he tried to keep his wife's head above water and manoeuvre her to the edge of the pond but was not able to rescue her.

"He said there was nothing he could do," Mr Pearce said.

"The triple-zero operator urged him to get back into the pond to try to help his wife, but the accused said he couldn't."

Mr Pearce said Dansie had been captured wearing his watch on the afternoon of his wife's death, but it had been removed by the time he entered the water.

He took his watch off and left his wallet in his car because he knew he would enter the pond to feign a rescue attempt, the prosecution says.

It is also alleged Dansie stood to receive financial benefit after the death of his wheelchair-bound wife.

The judge-alone trial continues.

Australian Associated Press