A knife to the chest
But was it self-defence or a deliberate attack?
Inger (Ashley) Tollefsen told a jury Wednesday she didn’t realize she had stabbed her partner until she saw blood.
“I didn’t know what had happened until I saw her shirt getting wet,” Tollefsen said while testifying in her own defence Wednesday at Newfoundland Supreme Court in St. John’s.
The 47-year-old is charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.
She was arrested Jan. 12, 2014, following a stabbing at a house on Cowan Avenue in the capital city, where the two women lived together.
On Tuesday, Tollefsen’s partner testified they had been arguing when Tollefsen went to the kitchen, got a knife from the knife block and stabbed her.
But Tollefsen painted a different picture of what happened that day. She told the jury it was her partner who viciously attacked her in a drunken rage.
Tollefsen said they had agreed to end their relationship, and she went to bed.
Not long after, she said, she was awakened by her partner, who was on top of her choking her and screaming, “If you’re not going to pay the rent, then get the (expletive) out of here!”
She said she tried to get away, but her partner hit her in the head from behind with a lamp and continued to hit her as she headed toward the kitchen.
Tollefsen said she managed to grab the lamp from the woman’s hands, but the woman lunged at her and began punching her.
“I wanted something to block her blows,” she testified.
That’s when, she said, she grabbed what she thought was a wooden cutting board from the kitchen counter.
However, it was a knife. Tollefsen stabbed the woman in the chest.
She said when she realized what she had done, she panicked.
“I was inside out. I was crying and screaming,” Tollefsen testified. “I was really worried because of the blood coming out of (her).”
She said she laid the woman on the floor and tried to apply pressure to the wound. Then she called 911.
“I told her, ‘ Hang on! Hang on!’” said Tollefsen, who stayed until paramedics arrived.
Minutes later, police showed up and arrested her.
In cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Jennifer Colford asked Tollefsen if she was so scared of the woman, why didn’t she run out of the house?
“There was nowhere to go,” said Tollefsen, who hasn’t been in custody since she was granted bail shortly after her arrest. “It just happened too fast.” The trial continues today and is expected to wrap up by Friday.