(Trinidad Guardian) – A 21-year-old Arima woman is now in police custody after stabbing her common-law husband to death during a domestic dispute, on Friday.
The woman, from Bypass Road, Arima, told police that the argument began when she visited Michael Painter, 41, at his Sixth Street, Five Rivers, Arouca, home around 5 am on Friday after attending a karaoke lime the previous night.
She claimed that Painter, an electrical contractor, accused her of infidelity and attacked her. The woman said that she managed to run to the kitchen where she grabbed a knife and stabbed Painter once in his chest in self-defence. Painter stumbled outside and collapsed in the yard where he bled to death.
The woman, whose identity has been withheld as police are yet to deem her actions self-defence, was detained at the Arouca Police Station up to late yesterday. Speaking with reporters at the scene, Painter’s relatives said the couple had been in a relationship for almost five years and had two children, aged three and four, together.
Asked if the couple’s relationship was always turbulent, the relatives, who asked to remain unidentified, said they did not know. “He would not talk about that with us. He was not that type of person,” a woman, who identified herself as Painter’s aunt, said.
Describing Painter as kind and loving, they claimed that they could not confirm the woman’s allegation that he was abusive.
“Sometimes the train runs off the tracks. I don’t know what would have caused this because he was one of the most loved people in this community,” a neighbour said.
Detectives of the Region Two Homicide Bureau are continuing investigations.
