As Rachel Maihi tried desperately to save her bleeding partner, his drunk killer paced and cackled nearby, saying horrible things, a court has heard.
The couple and Dakota Tihirua Ruka-Pohe - who lived in the same unit complex - had been at a fundraising event at a house where the men got into a scuffle.
Ruka-Pohe was seen drunk and drinking tequila shots at the function, a Brisbane court was told on Thursday.
During the melee the now 32-year-old asked where his knife was and threatened Ms Maihi's partner of 16 years, father-of-three Robert Watehe.
"I will stab you in the neck. Be careful, you don't know who I am," Ruka-Pohe said.
After others intervened Mr Watehe told Ruka-Pohe he was disrespectful by threatening to stab people.
Ruka-Pohe replied: "I'll be ready next time."
Mr Watehe agreed for his neighbour to go home in the Uber they had ordered but in the vehicle the men again argued and Ruka-Pohe became agitated.
Arriving outside their complex in Logan, south of Brisbane, in the early hours of November 4, 2018 the two wrestled before Ruka-Pohe stabbed Mr Watehe in the neck with a steak knife.
Ms Maihi said she rolled her husband - "a pretty big unit" - onto his back as adrenaline pumped through her body, pulled off her dress to put pressure on the stab wound and started CPR while on the phone to emergency services.
She tearfully told the court of using a knee to push her clothing on the injury so she had the use of her hands as she tried to keep her partner alive.
Ruka-Pohe paced nearby, screaming, laughing and saying "the most horrible things any human could say", Ms Maihi said.
"The moment the paramedics all stood up and said the words 'time of death' my whole stomach, heart and entire soul felt like it got ripped out of my body."
"I couldn't save him," she sobbed.
"I had to watch the love of my life die at the hands of another man."
Ms Maihi said her life was destroyed, flipped upside down, spun around and thrown to the wolves in the blink of an eye.
"I felt like I was in a scene in a horror movie: the love of my life, an amazing father of our three babies, had been stabbed in the neck for nothing."
Ms Maihi said she had had to move back to New Zealand with her children as her scaffolder partner was the main breadwinner.
The court heard Ruka-Pohe had conditions including schizophrenia, a mild intellectual development disorder and had not been compliant with medication before the stabbing.
He has lived with his parents for most of his life and had limited work experience.
"I note you left (employment) because God was saying to leave and telling you to further your horizons and you have been unemployed since that time," Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Wilson told Ruka-Pohe during sentencing on Thursday.
Taking into account his plea of guilty to manslaughter and diminished responsibility at the time of the killing, Justice Wilson sentenced Ruka-Pohe to eight years behind bars.
He also admitted two counts of serious assault of police for spitting into the eyes and mouths of two officers during his arrest.
Justice Wilson ordered Ruka-Pohe be eligible immediately to apply for parole after being in custody for four years and seven months.
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