Jury to rule if man stabbed lover in heart

A jury will decide whether a Queensland man killed his lover by intentionally stabbing her in the heart, or whether she fell onto the knife accidentally.

Lawrence William Raymond, 42, is on trial in Cairns Supreme Court charged with murdering his girlfriend in Kowanyama, Cape York, in the early hours of January 7 last year.

The woman can't be named for cultural reasons.

Prosecutor Roger Griffith alleged Raymond stabbed his girlfriend in the heart with a butcher's knife after becoming angry at something she said.

In his defence, Raymond said he didn't mean to stab his girlfriend, who accidentally fell onto the knife he was holding.

In summing up his evidence on Thursday, Mr Griffith read comments Raymond had made to police soon after the attack.

"I went right into her [with the knife], right above her chest," Mr Griffith read from the transcript.

During the police interview Raymond said a number of times that he had stabbed his girlfriend.

Something she said made him feel like a dog, he told police.

"That's when I turned around and stabbed her with that knife," Raymond told police at the time.

Both he and his girlfriend had been drinking, but Raymond told police it was the first time for more than a year he had consumed alcohol.

Raymond's lawyer, James Sheridan, told the jury that in "drunken stupidness" his client had tried to tap his girlfriend on the shoulder with a knife to get her attention.

She had then got up, stumbled and fallen onto it, he told the court.

Mr Sheridan said Raymond's relationship with his girlfriend had been "filled with laughter" and there was no reason why he would want her dead.

His client only told police he had stabbed his girlfriend because he was overcome with grief and was under pressure.

Raymond had aquired the knife after breaking up a fight at a party earlier in the evening.

Justice James Henry will conclude his summation on Friday when the jury will retire to consider its verdict.