A WOMAN told jurors she “accidentally” stabbed a man twice in the chest.
Stephanie Bowie admitted fatally injuring Darren Russell close to the Grill in the Park Bar and Restaurant in Erskine, Renfrewshire on New Year’s Day 2021.
She accepted being angry at the 21 year-old as he had been arguing with her younger brother Mark.
But, the 29 year-old claimed she only went armed with a knife to “scare” Darren and had not intended to kill him.
Bowie was today giving evidence at her trial at the High Court in Glasgow, where she denies murder.
Jurors previously heard how Darren, Mark Bowie, 19, and others had been in the grounds of Barsail Primary School in Erskine on January 1 last year.
Courts
The two men later got into an argument.
Stephanie Bowie then got a taxi from Paisley to Erskine after speaking to the pair and apparently being “worried” for her brother.
She told her QC Brian McConnachie that she took a knife before getting into the cab.
Mr McConnachie asked: “At that time, what was your intention?”
Most read in The Scottish Sun
Bowie: “To get my brother and back to Paisley.”
She recalled shouting at Darren to “get away” from her sibling and that she was going to “kill” him.
But, Bowie said Darren responded by “laughing”.
The Bowies, Darren and his friend Craig Smith eventually ended up close to the restaurant.
It is there Stephanie Bowie stabbed Darren with the blade that she initially had hidden up her sleeve.
She then fled the scene amid claims she was “all happy” as she left dying Darren.
In evidence, Bowie claimed Darren had been standing over her while she was on the ground, and that she “panicked” and brought out the knife.
She added: “I pulled it out to scare him so he would back away.”
Bowie insisted she did not deliberately strike the man.
But, prosecutor Lorraine Glancy later put to her that she had been “raging” with Darren.
Miss Glancy: “So, you accidentally stabbed him twice, but cannot help how that actually happened?”
Bowie: “No. I thought I had hit an arm. I did not think it was that serious.”
The advocate depute: “Did you help him at all?
“She replied: “No.”
Miss Glancy: “Did you have a care in the world for him?”
Bowie: “I did not realise how serious it was.”
Mark Bowie had been accused of assaulting Darren, but the accusation was withdrawn and he is no longer on trial.
Stephanie Bowie and Gary Howieson, 32, also no longer face separate allegations of assault at a house in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire on February 10 last year.
The trial against Bowie, before judge Lord Weir, continues.