The jury retired this afternoon in the trial of a woman accused of murdering her husband who died of a shotgun blast to the chest in west Auckland last year.
Dale Wickham, 62, has pleaded not guilty in the High Court at Auckland to murdering John Wickham, found dead in their home in Massey last October.
The prosecution alleged she deliberately killed him because he had been having affairs and saying hurtful things to her, but the defence claimed her husband was abusive toward her and she acted in self-defence.
Summing-up, Justice Rebecca Ellis said the jury needed to consider whether she had deliberately shot him or whether she "pulled the trigger inadvertently in a state of panic".
Justice Ellis said if the jury decided pulling the trigger was justified then the threat to her must have been very great indeed.
"But you might think that pointing a gun at someone in those circumstances is reasonable but shooting them is not," she said.
