A Sydney ice-user has told a jury he had been swinging a knife around to scare off two attackers when one of them was fatally stabbed.
Jay Lupton denied making up the attack or intending to kill or seriously injure Hady Jaouhara just before midnight on February 23, 2020 at the western Sydney home of his girlfriend's mother.
The 30-year-old has pleaded not guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to murdering the 23-year-old in the backyard of the Lethbridge Park house.
The Crown alleges he deliberately stabbed Mr Jaouhara, a friend of Lupton's girlfriend Sherie O'Neill, because he was enraged at his saving her name alongside "beauty" in his phone.
Lupton also was allegedly fed up with "junkies and drama" circulating about the residence.
He's told the jury the knifing took place inside the house after he was attacked by Mr Jaouhara and another man, who was about to light up an ice-pipe.
"There was two people hitting me, one was stomping me and one was punching me," he said.
Lupton said he was swinging around a goldish-yellow knife he grabbed from the table, intending to ward off the attack.
"Everything happen so fast" and he then saw blood and Mr Jaouhara crouching over, holding his stomach, so Lupton said he told Ms O'Neill to call an ambulance.
Under cross-examination from prosecutor Gareth Harrison, Lupton said he left the scene and didn't know if Mr Jaouhara had been slashed, cut or stabbed and didn't find out he was fatally stabbed until the next morning.
Mr Harrison referred him to a message he sent just after midnight saying he had "dipped someone".
Lupton previously told the jury this was a rapper's term meaning stabbed, but he told Mr Harrison it also referred to "a knife being used by someone".
He was referred to angry and threatening messages he sent 12 hours before the knifing to people including Ms O'Neill, who was also seeing another man.
"We were both being strung along by her," he said.
"I was angry, she kept treating me like an idiot after everything I had done for her."
The threats included kicking in a door and killing another man, but Lupton said they were made in the context of him having taking ice and not slept.
"I had been awake for multiple days and I was not thinking straight."
He denied his state of mind was the same 12 hours later when he saw Mr Jaouhara, saying he had managed to have some sleep in the meantime.
Mr Harrison suggested he was in an aggressive, violent and jealous state of mind which was completely inconsistent with an accidental stabbing.
As he replied to many other questions, Lupton said "you can suggest what you like" before denying the crown case.
He denied yelling "look what you have done" to Ms O'Neill, blaming her for what had happened.
"You didn't give a hoot that this happened to Hady," Mr Harrison suggested.
"You can suggest what you like ... but it is something I will never forget," he replied.
The trial continues before Justice Peter Hamill.
