The jury has been sent out in the trial of Lee Kendall who is accused of murdering a former air hostess by stabbing her through the eye.
The Honourable Mr Justice Garnham sent the jury out at Truro Crown Court at 12.30pm this afternoon after he spent the morning summing up the evidence in the case.
Lee Kendall, 43, is accused of killing Michaela Hall in her Mount Hawke home in a drunken rage after an argument over a sweet and sour dinner on the evening of May 31 last year.
The killing followed months of physical assaults inflicted on 49-year-old Michaela by Kendall during the period of their relationship.
He is currently on trial at Truro Crown Court.
Judge Garnham reminded the jury that the prosecution's case was that Kendall, a violent drug addict and alcoholic, deliberately killed Michaela by stabbing her through the eye with a black handled cutlery knife during a struggle in the smallest bedroom of the house.
He reminded them that, according to the prosecution, Kendall had a history of targeting Michaela's eyes during a series of domestic assaults and the suggestion it was an accident "was implausible"
and that he was lying and he knew "exactly" what he was doing and chose the eye to stab her in.
The defence's case is that he never intended to stab Michaela and it was an accident that the knife went into her eye after she attacked him with it and he got it off her. "They say Michaela aggressively came towards Lee Kendal and the defendant says he took the knife off her and ultimately the the knife went into Michaela's eye."
Yesterday Mr Justice Garnham told the jury that it can consider manslaughter if members are not sure he intended to kill.
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