NSW: Woman jailed for at least four years for killing husband
16 Dec 2008 11:35 AM
SYDNEY, Dec 16 AAP - A heavily intoxicated woman who stabbed her husband to death with an antique knife has been jailed for at least four years.
In sentencing Danielle Stewart in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday, Acting Justice Jane Mathews noted her blood alcohol reading at the time of the stabbing was calculated to have been 0.240.
In August, a jury found Stewart, 32, not guilty of murder, but guilty of the manslaughter of Chaim Kimel, 55, at their home in Rose Bay, in Sydney's east, in August 2006.
The judge concluded Stewart's actions in stabbing her husband related to a combination of her high level of alcohol intoxication and her borderline personality disorder.
During a late night argument at their unit, Stewart had grabbed the antique knife, previously kept in its sheath on a coffee table, and stabbed her husband twice in the abdomen.
Justice Mathews referred to the moving victim impact statements read to the court by Mr Kimel's three children.
She said they were obviously devastated by his death and all spoke of the special relationship they had with their father.
She told the children, who were in the public gallery, she suspected they would "regard the punishment I am about to impose as quite inadequate".
But she said no punishment would ever be able to redress their loss and there were many factors to consider when delivering the sentence.
She set a maximum term of six years and four months, and backdated the sentence to when Stewart was taken into custody.
The earliest date she will be eligible for release on parole is June 24, 2011.
