BARBARA GAYLE, Star writer

A woman who told the court that she overpowered her common-law husband and stabbed him with the knife he had used to cut her has been freed by a Home Circuit Court jury.

Stacy-Ann Forsythe, 28, merchandiser, of Callalo Mews, Kingston 11, went on trial last week Monday for the murder of Leon Lamont.

Forsythe wept last Friday after the jury found her not guilty of murder or manslaughter.

The Crown led evidence that on April 4, 2010 the couple had a dispute and Forsythe used a knife to stab Lamont in the chest.

However, under cross-examination by defence lawyers Vincent Wellesley and Latoya Errar, some of the prosecution witnesses admitted that the deceased was the aggressor. The lawyers also referred to discrepancies in the statements the witnesses had given to the police and their testimonies.

Forsythe , in an unsworn statement, said that she was at home washing when Lamont came home. She said she accused him of being involved with another woman and he hit her in the face with a dutch pot and cut her on her hand with a knife.

She said she went into the house and Lamont followed her and began attacking her. She said she overpowered him, took the knife from him and stabbed him.