The prosecutor called the stabbing death of Erlinda Adviento a "horrible, atrocious act," but the defense lawyer said it was self-defense by a man who had already been stabbed, nearly fatally, by the victim.

A Circuit Court jury will be asked to decide the fate of Melchor Adviento, on trial for murdering his wife on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in October 2007.

Erlinda Adviento, 44, was stabbed 16 times in the bedroom of a house the couple shared on Kahaha Street in Kalihi. She was stabbed in the heart and lungs, the thighs, and on her face and arms, and had defensive wounds on her hands.

A police officer first to arrive on the scene was told by Adviento, "I killed my wife," Chief Deputy Prosecutor Douglas Chin said yesterday in his opening statement.

"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."

Defense attorney Jonathan Burge said Adviento defended himself from an attack by his wife, taking knives away from her after she had stabbed him five times.

"He thought he was going to die," Burge said.

Melchor Adviento was hospitalized in critical condition with three stab wounds to his abdomen and two to his shoulder. He recovered after surgery to remove his spleen.

Both sides agreed that the couple had a troubled relationship.

They slept in different rooms of the house and had accused each other of extramarital affairs. They vacationed separately and had discussed divorce.

On the afternoon of Oct. 28, 2007, after Melchor Adviento returned home from his part-time job at Liliha Bakery, he overheard his wife on the telephone with a male friend from the convalescent home where she worked as a nursing assistant.

"She's calling somebody sweetheart" on the telephone, Burge said.

He entered the bedroom and they "got in an argument," Burge said.

After he turned his back to pick up the phone to call her workplace, Adviento turned back to his wife "and he was stabbed in the abdomen," the defense lawyer said.

He took the weapons away from her and stabbed her, the lawyer said.

Believing his wife was dead, Adviento locked the doors to the bedroom and house so that their children wouldn't see what had happened, according to Burge.

Their 11-year-old son was visiting upstairs neighbors at the time and an older daughter was away from the house.

Before the police arrived, Adviento, then 50 years old, decided to kill himself and slashed both of his wrists, Burge said.

But prosecutor Chin said that when Mrs. Adviento was on the phone in her bedroom with her friend from work, her husband was outside "listening to the conversation" through jalousie windows.

She was helping the man study for a nursing exam, but also spoke of more personal matters, relating that she "was asking for a divorce," Chin said.

Melchor Adviento then began knocking on the bedroom door, saying, "You are the one who has the boyfriend," according to Chin.

"Erlinda said, 'I'll call you back,' and hung up the phone. She never called him back," Chin said.

The defendant "stabbed her with a kitchen knife and she began to scream," the prosecutor said.

"He stabbed her again and he stabbed her again and he stabbed her again," the prosecutor continued.

"Mr. Adviento stabbed his wife 16 times, using the kitchen knives she had used to cook his meals and to feed his children," Chin said.

The couple's son heard the screams and came downstairs with an adult neighbor to investigate.

The front door was locked so the boy went around the side of the house and asked through the windows what was wrong. "Call 911," the son heard his mother say, according to Chin.

"There is no reasonable explanation that justifies this horrible, atrocious act," Chin said.