Murder suspect claims her partner stabbed himself to death at their South Yorkshire home

Pictured is Zygimantas Kromelys, originally from Lithuania, who died aged 26 after he suffered a fatal stab wound in Rotherham.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how Indre Barysaite, aged 30, of Denman Street, Eastwood, Rotherham, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Zygimantas Kromelys after he was found by police lying wounded in their kitchen.

Dimitrijus Jakimovas, aged 33, who also lived at the Denman Street property, has also pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Kromelys.

Police bodycam footage showed officers and paramedics arriving during the evening of November 10, 2019, and Mr Kromelys, who had an alleged history of self-harming, was found on the kitchen floor in the arms of a tearful Ms Barysaite and Mr Jakimovas was nearby.

Ms Barysaite told the trial on December 10 Mr Kromelys and Mr Jakimovas had been drinking and Mr Kromelys had a dispute with two visitors about a debt and after they left she said Mr Kromelys’s mood changed.

She added Mr Kromelys and Mr Jakimovas left and when they returned Mr Kromelys’s mood deteriorated and he sat in the sitting room hiding a knife before coming into the kitchen.

A tearful Ms Barysaite said: “He said, ‘that’s it, that’s it. that’s it’. He just approached the door and he opened the door and picked up something and he stood in front of us drunk and he just made one movement.”

Ms Barysaite demonstrated the movement to the court as she repeatedly struck her chest with a fist.

She said: “I heard him taking a deep breath of air. Dimitrijus shouted, ‘what are you doing?’. I jumped up from the chair and turned to Zygimantas.

"Zygimantas fell down on the ground and I didn’t understand what was going on. Then I touched his t-shirt and it was wet and I didn’t understand.”

She added: “When I lifted his t-shirt and I noticed the cut on his chest and I just shouted to Dimitrijus to give me something to compress his wound.”

As Dimitrijus Jakimovas compressed the wound with a towel, according to Ms Barysaite, she made calls to Lithuanian associates because she said she cannot speak English and did not know the 999 number.

The court heard Ms Barysaite had a history of self-harming after her daughter died, and after she and Mr Kromelys met she learned he was self-harming and had an alcohol problem.

She claimed she once caught him trying to drink acid, had once caught him trying to hang himself, and once found a blood-stained note before finding him trying to cut his veins and chest.

The court heard Ms Barysaite and Mr Kromelys, who worked at a car-wash, had been expecting a baby but Ms Barysaite had a miscarriage after her arrest.

Ms Barysaite admitted she lied to police that two other men were responsible for the killing because Mr Kromelys comes from a Catholic family and she did not want to bring shame upon them.

She said she, Mr Kromelys and Mr Jakimovas, who speak Lithuanian, were “like a family”, and she would never hurt Mr Kromelys and she did not stab him and she added: “I still love him.”

The trial continues.

Man and woman deny murdering her husband after he suffered fatal stab wound

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to The Star website and enjoy unlimited access to local news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content.

Visit https://www.thestar.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.