Almost 20 years after a young man was fatally stabbed at a birthday party, a man is standing trial accused of his "payback" murder.

In the SA Supreme Court on Monday, prosecutors outlined the case against Kimlong Rim, 38.

He is accused of the murder of Thea Kheav, 21, at an 18th birthday party in Parafield Gardens, in Adelaide's north, in December 2007.

Prosecutor Kos Lesses said the accused was part of a group of men at the party who argued with one of Mr Kheav's brothers.

They left the party and drove to a home in nearby Paralowie, where four of the men armed themselves with bottles and planks of wood, and a machete-type knife, then returned to the party, he said.

"You'll hear how the alleged victim ended up getting attacked by this group of four on the driveway of the house, which resulted in him being fatally stabbed in the chest with a long-bladed knife," Mr Lesses told the jury.

A "broad bush picture" of the case was that it was about an armed group of friends who retaliated after an argument to "effect payback" on one of the Kheav brothers, he said.

"It's about a group attack on Thea Kheav allegedly committed by these four men," Mr Lesses said.

A man named Syna Duong had inflicted the fatal stab wound but the other three men were also legally responsible for the murder, known in criminal law as joint criminal enterprise, the prosecutor alleged.

"The issue in this trial ... is going to be one of involvement and group criminal responsibility," Mr Lesses said.

"Was the accused present at the crime scene, and was he physically involved in the group attack?"

Ryan Williams, SC, for Rim, said it was not in dispute that his client was "one of the many caught up in one way or another in the chaos in this violent affray".

"What is in dispute is this idea that he is a murderer, so that's where the battle lines are drawn," he said.

The trial, before a jury and Justice Rachael Gray, is expected to run for three weeks.