Woman says she stabbed husband in self-defence

Manslaughter suspect Vanessa Poucette said Friday she wasn’t even aiming when she plunged a knife into her husband’s heart.

Poucette insisted she was acting in self-defence and denied suggestions by Crown prosecutor Jillian Pawlow she was driven by anger when she fatally stabbed Brennon Twoyoungmen.

The Morley woman is charged with manslaughter in the Oct. 1, 2016, death of Twoyoungmen, 42, at the home of her cousin, Clement Poucette, on the Stoney Nakoda First Nation.

Under cross-examination, Pawlow suggested Poucette was angry at Twoyoungmen for blaming her for starting a fight between the two.

“He was yelling that it was your fault?” the prosecutor said. “Yes,” Poucette replied. “You felt that he was partially to blame, or maybe fully to blame,” Pawlow said.

“Yes,” Poucette agreed. Poucette said she looked down the hallway and saw her cousin with Twoyoungmen heading toward her.

“I was scared and I was trying to get away from him when he was trying to catch me,” Poucette said.

The prosecutor noted her cousin tried to break up the altercation and told her to back off.

“Instead of listening to Clement, you grab that knife and you walk into that hallway and you stab Brennon,” she said.

“I was so scared for my life, I didn’t know what to do. I just grabbed the knife,” Poucette said.

“I took a few steps and I went like that,” she said, moving her right arm in an overhand stabbing motion.

“And you stabbed Brennon right in the heart,” Pawlow said.

“I wasn’t even aiming, or looking,” the accused replied. “I was so scared and terrified.”

Her trial continues April 26.