Woman says picking up knife was a "stupid" act

Juliette Anne Gerbes, 21, is on trial in the High Court at Napier after pleading not guilty to manslaughter.

A woman charged with the fatal stabbing of her boyfriend told police she picked up a knife during a heated argument before he grabbed her hand and pulled it towards him, a jury has heard.
"I don't know if he was pulling me or pulling the knife ... I don't remember seeing it go in."
"All I know I picked up a knife, he grabbed my hands and he told me to ring an ambulance, I was freaking out."
Juliette Anne Gerbes,21, is on trial in the High Court at Napier after pleading not guilty to manslaughter.
Her boyfriend, Christopher Jones, died after sustaining a knife wound in the early hours of October 13 2012.
Gerbes denies causing the wound and said instead Mr Jones pulled the knife into himself.
The jury heard yesterday an argument had started when the pair returned home from a party at a friends house.
The fight grew heated with slaps and punches being thrown and Mr Jones threatening to go out and find another girl.
Crown Prosecutor Clayton Walker said there was no dispute the knife was picked up and held by Gerbes in the moments before the fatal wounding occurred.
Gerbes told police she didn't know why she had picked up the knife.
"I wasn't trying to hurt him, maybe I was trying to be threatening or maybe it was as a joke, I don't know why."
"As a stupid action I just picked it up, I wasn't aiming it at him, I wasn't trying to cut him."
She said Mr Jones was trying to be intimidating in the minutes before the incident.
"He came inside when I had the knife in my hand, he got all up in my face like whatever, whatever but I had no intention whatsoever to stab him when he grabbed the knife and pulled it towards him."
"He just grabbed me around the wrist, around the hand, he just pulled straight towards him, maybe he was trying to get it off me and I let go of it I don't know."
She said his face"dropped".
"He has this massive frown, full on evils, rage, then his faced just dropped, he went all white, he was real worried, the only word she said to me were 'call an ambulance I'm not joking'."
She said the relationship had been a good one but with "rough patches"and "drama"throughout the year they had been living together.
"It's a good relationship, I love him and he loves me but we've had so many rough patches."
"We've had decent sized arguments about relatively important stuff in the year we've been together but we always find a way to make it up ... regardless of all the crap that's gone on we don't want to risk losing each other."
She told police about an earlier incident in which both her and Mr Jones ended up with black eyes.
She said Mr Jones had hit her head into the ground and thrown her around before punching her in the face.
Gerbes said Mr Jones could not remember the incident in the morning.