The 2007 stabbing death of Erlinda Adviento in her Kalihi home was either murder or an act of self-defense, attorneys argued in opening statements of the jury trial of Melchor Adviento, husband of the dead woman.

First Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Chin told jurors that the victim was stabbed 16 times by a husband enraged by suspicions that his wife was having an affair and planned to divorce him.
“It was not self-defense,” Chin said.
“There is no reasonable explanation that justifies this horrible, atrocious act.”
Defense lawyer Jonathan Burge then said that Mrs. Adviento was the aggressor, first stabbing her husband five times, inflicting near-fatal wounds to his abdomen.
He took two kitchen knives away from her and fought back, Burge said.
“He thought he was going to die,” said Burge.
Before police arrived at the couple’s Kahaha Street home, Adviento slashed his own wrists in an attempted suicide, the defense attorney told the jury.
Chin said that when Adviento opened the door to police, he said, “I killed my wife.”
“My wife was cheating so she tried to stab me,” Chin quoted Adviento as saying. “So I killed her and I tried to stab myself.”
During the opening statements, Adviento bowed his head and covered his face with his hands.