A Wellington butcher stabbed his wife so hard the knife fused to her spine and had to be surgically removed, a High Court jury was told today.
Emani Tinoa'i, 48, stabbed his wife Moliga Tatupu-Tinoa'i, 42, to death on the forecourt of the Johnsonville Mobil station on March 14 last year.
In the High Court at Wellington today defence lawyer Mike Antunovic argued Tinoa'i was provoked by his wife's alleged infidelity.
"Mr Tinao'i accepts his wife is only dead because of what he did but he is guilty of manslaughter, not murder, by way of provocation," Mr Antunovic said.
The provocation defence was repealed by Parliament earlier this year but still applies to offences committed prior to the law change.
Crown prosecutor Grant Burston told the court Tinao'i stabbed his wife so forcefully the knife fused to her spine.
"Murderous intent can hardly be disputed," he said.
Police Constable Rachael Dundon, the officer in charge of Mrs Tinao'i's body, told the court a section of Mrs Tinao'i's vertebrae had to be surgically removed to free the knife.
Mr Burston told the court the couple had an unhappy marriage and Tinoa'i, 49, suspected his wife, 42, was having an affair.
He waited for her to finish work at a rest home on March 14, 2009, and began stabbing her as she drove into the Johnsonville Mobil service station just before midnight.
