AS soon as Kevin George Smith put a large hunting knife away, his rival Daniel Pettersson "lunged" at him and pushed past the woman at the centre of their love triangle, triggering a wrestle inside a home at Jesmond that would end in Mr Pettersson's death, a jury has heard.
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That is, according to the key witness in Mr Smith's murder trial, the woman who was the ex-partner of both men and who stood between them on the doorstep of the home in Michael Street on the afternoon of January 6 last year, desperately trying to keep the peace.
There is no dispute that Mr Smith, 39, was armed with a knife and stabbed Mr Pettersson in the chest during a wrestle in the kitchen of the home between 3.34pm and 3.39pm.
The jury have been told that both men had previously been involved in a relationship with the woman, Mr Smith on-and-off between 2016 and 2022 and Mr Pettersson for about five months in late 2019.
When the woman gave birth to a child in 2020, Mr Smith was told the baby was his.
Later, Mr Pettersson did a paternity test that revealed he was the father, a development which caused "some friction" between the two men, Crown prosecutor Brendan Queenan said on Monday.
On the day he died, Mr Pettersson had been trying to contact the woman, including making 17 calls to her phone and seven calls to her father.
The woman's father gave evidence on Tuesday that he answered one of the calls about 90 minutes before the fatal confrontation and said Mr Pettersson sounded "aggressive" and "agitated".
The woman and Mr Smith were at the house in Michael Street when Mr Pettersson pulled up outside about 3.34pm and asked: "who is here?" or "is he here?", the woman gave evidence on Tuesday.
The woman said Mr Pettersson walked into the house, "had a word" with Mr Smith and walked back outside.
Mr Pettersson was standing on the front step and the woman was between him and Mr Smith when Mr Smith pulled out a knife.
"I turned around and said to Kevin 'what are you doing, put it away'," the woman said. "As soon as he put it away and clipped the case shut, Daniel lunged at him and pushed me out of the way. "Daniel went to grab at him and Kevin stepped back and they went around the corner and I grabbed [the child] and started freaking out. "Kevin was walking backwards and Daniel was trying to grab him."
The woman said she saw the men in the kitchen wrestling; Mr Smith was armed with the knife again while Mr Pettersson was trying to grab it off him.
The woman said her dog began attacking the men during the struggle, biting them and jumping up and she struggled to restrain it and lock it in a bedroom before hearing Mr Pettersson call out.
She said she looked up to see Mr Pettersson had "blood coming out of his shoulder... just gushing out".
She tried to assist him by putting towels on his wound and getting people to call an ambulance but Mr Pettersson died on the footpath outside the home.
Mr Smith fled on foot but handed himself in to police six days later.
Public Defender Peter Krisenthal told the jury on Monday the primary issue in the trial is self-defence and said the stabbing happened almost instantaneously to stop an assault from Mr Pettersson.
The trial continues.
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