A man who thrust a double-bladed knife into the chest of his girlfriend's abusive ex-partner has been painted as either an aggressor acting with bravado or someone defending themselves in fear.
Nicholas Luke Martin is fighting an allegation he murdered 42-year-old Shahn Baker outside a social housing estate in Erina, on the NSW Central Coast, about 8.30pm on February 3, 2022.
As his NSW Supreme Court trial drew closer to an end on Monday, jurors were told two very different stories about how Martin came to stab Mr Baker in the centre of the chest.
Days before the alleged murder, the 30-year-old had started dating Maxie Wilson, who had recently broken free from a violent and abusive six-year relationship with Mr Baker, the jury previously heard.
He was stabbed outside Martin's front door after arriving heavily drunk at the property, demanding to know why his ex-girlfriend was staying at another man's house.
On Monday, crown prosecutor Liam Shaw asked jurors to reject the 30-year-old's claims of self-defence and find him guilty.
"He was the aggressor. He was a willing fighter," Mr Shaw said.
"He took the double-edged knife with him to confront Shahn Baker out of bravado.”
Martin's barrister, Antony Evers, said his client acted out of self-defence because of Mr Baker's past history of violence towards Ms Wilson.
During their lengthy relationship, Mr Baker had assaulted Ms Wilson multiple times, choked her, forced her to drink bleach, punched her in the stomach while she was pregnant and made death threats while detaining her in their apartment bedroom, Mr Evers said.
While Ms Wilson initially lied about the assaults and protected her partner, she eventually left him after becoming so fearful she jumped out of a first-storey window to escape on one occasion, he said.
Mr Baker became increasingly hostile towards Ms Wilson in the month before he was stabbed as he realised she was not coming back to him, the jury heard.
"You guys are going to f***ing learn a lesson, I f***ing swear to god," Mr Baker said in a voicemail message left on Ms Wilson's phone.
Martin knew of Mr Baker's tendency to act violently because of text messages he sent after she left him, many of which threatened her and anyone hiding her.
"I’ll break you and your f***ing family like you’re doing to me," he texted one of her friends.
Knowing the content of these messages and Mr Baker's prior behaviour, Martin felt self-defence was necessary, Mr Evers said.
Mr Baker kept trying to get to where his ex-partner was before Martin reacted in a split second and unluckily stabbed the older man in the heart to protect Ms Wilson, Mr Evers said.
"Neither law nor logic requires you, if you’re defending someone else, to wait until they’ve been turned into a bloody mess to intervene,” he told the jury.
The trial continues.
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