A jury has been urged to reject a woman’s account of how she fatally stabbed her partner during a meth-fuelled argument as “surreal fantasy land” and “utterly preposterous nonsense”.
Claudia Maria Federico has been on trial in WA’s Supreme Court for the past week, charged with the manslaughter of Joseph Nicoli, who died five days after his femoral artery was sliced open by the 19cm blade in March last year.
Prosecutor Justin Whalley has described how the couple — who welcomed a baby son together just a month before — had a loud argument that escalated from angry texts to a face-to-face confrontation in the stairwell of their West Perth home.
“F… these texts. Act your age and talk to me properly,” one of the texts read.
Neighbours who heard the couple yelling testified that it lasted between 15 and 30 minutes, with one of them saying it was about “random stuff”.
The prosecution argues Ms Federico “introduced” the knife into the close-quarters confrontation while both were affected by methamphetamine.
The prosecution does not say the fatal wound was intentionally caused by Ms Federico, but accuses her of criminal negligence.
“What’s done is done and can’t be undone, and actions have consequences,” Mr Whalley said in his closing address on Monday.
Ms Federico’s nine-year old daughter Natalia gave evidence that she was at the top of the stairwell and saw both adults making side to side movements but did not see the knife plunge into the top of Mr Nicoli’s right leg.
She also told authorities she saw her mother return to the kitchen, wash the knife, then use it to cut carrots as he lay fatally bleeding metres away.
But both Mr Whalley and defence barrister Jonathan Davies urged the jury not to rely on a child’s evidence of such traumatic events.
The prosecutor pointed out to the jury that the girl told two aunties she didn’t see the stabbing.
“A nine-year-old way of saying she didn’t want to talk about it … she clearly had seen something,” Mr Whalley said.
The defence argues that Ms Federico had been cutting carrots before hearing Mr Nicoli coming down the stairs.
As she went to investigate the noise – while still holding the knife – he appeared and collided with the blade.
“Not all forms of carelessness amount to criminal negligence,” Mr Davies said.
To find his client guilty, the jury would have to deem her actions “gross negligence, a significant departure from the standard of care that you would expect from a reasonable person”.
Mr Whalley said the court would probably never know how the fatal wound was inflicted.
He acknowledged that Ms Frederico tried to help after the stabbing, calling triple-zero just after midday and unleashing “hysterical garble”.
The State was not suggesting she faked her distress, he added.
Ms Frederico was tested and found to have more meth in her system than her de facto – and at a level that would have affected her behaviour, the prosecutor said.
Among her “implausible” testimony was a claim she’d taken the drug around midnight then gone to sleep, Mr Whalley said.
The jury is expected to begin considering its verdict on Tuesday.
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