A Hunter Valley woman has admitted to stabbing a man in a street fight near Newcastle, but her lawyer has told a jury it was in self-defence.
Jason Adams, 27, was found dead on a road with a stab wound to his chest at Raymond Terrace in the early hours of February 29, 2020.
Lily Ridgeway, 26, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter in the Supreme Court in Newcastle.
In her opening address, Ms Ridgeway’s barrister Talitha Hennessy argued the stabbing was an accident, and that her client had acted in self-defence and did not unlawfully kill Mr Adams.
Jason Adams was stabbed in a Raymond Terrace street. (Facebook)
The court heard Mr Adams was killed during a fight outside the home of a friend of Ms Ridgeway, who she had been staying with.
The jury was told Mr Adams had also been staying with that friend, but when relations soured, he was forced to leave the day before the stabbing.
Heated messages
The court heard in the hours before he died, Mr Adams exchanged heated and threatening text messages with Ms Ridgeway’s friend.
He was stabbed when he returned to the street outside the home, allegedly yelling out threats.
Ms Hennessy told the court Ms Ridgeway did not deny she was armed or that she used the knife after she was grabbed by Mr Adams.
“There is no dispute Ms Ridgeway was outside and that she had a knife on her,” she said. Â
Lily Ridgeway is on trial before a jury in the Supreme Court. (Facebook)
“There is also no dispute Mr Adams died from one stab wound to his heart.
“But there is going to be some disputes about things that happened straight after.”
Crown prosecutor Carl Young told the jury they needed to consider two key points.
“Can the Crown prove the stabbing was a deliberate and intended act by Ms Ridgeway as opposed to an accident?” he said.
“[And] can the Crown prove Ms Ridgeway was not acting in self-defence?”
‘What happened in that five-minute window?’
Mr Young said Mr Adams had spent the night prior to his death at a local fast food restaurant, from where he sent 240 text messages to Ms Ridgeway’s friend.
“They discussed him being kicked out, and returning property and returning money,” Mr Young said.
The jury heard Mr Adams was in the street at around 5:20am, and that a five-minute time frame after that would be crucial to consider.
“There was a triple-0 call just just before 5:25am and by that stage Mr Adams was dead or close to death,” Mr Young said.
“What happened in that five-minute window between the end of the messages and the 000 call?”Â
The prosecutor said jurors would hear from Ms Ridgeway’s friend, who told police she stayed inside when Ms Ridgeway went outside.
Mr Young said Ms Ridgeway later described the moment Mr Adams was stabbed.
“Ms Ridgeway approached and said something like, ‘Oh babe, you should have felt that,'” Mr Young told jurors.
Defence barrister Talitha Hennessy said no such words were used.
“The Crown expects [the friend] to say that Lily said something to her when she went back into the house and that is disputed,” she said.
The Supreme Court sitting in Newcastle for the trial. (ABC Newcastle: Robert Virtue)
“It is also disputed Ms Ridgeway went inside and vomited in the toilet.”
Mr Young told the jury they would be played a police interview in which Ms Ridgeway said “she went into survival mode” and that “if it wasn’t him it would have been me”.
He said the Crown would argue that it was an unlawful killing and not an accident.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams is expected to run for a week.