THE trial of a 30-year-old man, charged with murdering a 41-year-old father-of-three on a quiet Barry street, began at Cardiff Crown Court this week.

Paul Michael Jones, known as Jona, died after being stabbed twice in the heart on Columbus Close on August 3, 2009 – allegedly by John Chivers, with whom he had been drinking earlier in the evening at Barry’s King William IV pub on Bridge Street.

At the opening of the trial on Monday, the jury was told that an argument at the pub between Chivers and his partner Dominique Fitzgerald led to her leaving and walking home.

Jona is said to have left the pub at around 10pm and driven Chivers and friend Christopher Painter back to Ms Fitzgerald's home on Columbus Close to collect her, so that the group could continue drinking together.

But problems arose as Chivers emerged from the house arguing with Ms Fitzgerald. The prosecution alleged that Chivers then pushed his girlfriend over and that Jona stepped in to defend her.

Prosecuting Chivers, Michael Chambers said: "The defendant pushed her over and Paul Jones went to protect her. They exchanged blows and Christopher Painting went to mediate, but the defendant pushed him through the fence.

"The deceased went to the car and retrieved a wheel brace which he tucked into his waist band. The defendant went into the house and came out bare-chested with a kitchen knife."

Mr Chambers continued: "He persued the deceased along the road - Paul Jones with his hands up. "The defendant then pushed the knife in and removed it twice. There were two fatal stab wounds to his heart."

Chivers is then alleged to have thrown the knife down, run into the front of the house and out of the back where he used a neighbour's phone to call his father, who was at the scene, to ask if the police had arrived and if Mr Jones was dead.

While his father reasoned with him the police identified the number and tried to trace him, but Chivers had fled the scene in a taxi and bought heroin.

Chivers went with his friend, Barry Sweeney, to an address in Laleston Close where he took an overdose in an apparent attempt at suicide.

Mr Chambers said: "Sweeney found him slumped on the floor and phoned an ambulance."

The ambulance, accompanied by police, arrived at 12.49am. Chivers was administered an opiate reverser and began to talk.

He told police: "I ain't a bad person. I was almost killed to death.

"Jona tried to attack me on my doorstep and his friend took me from the side."

But Mr Chambers said the account neighbours gave was that Chivers was the aggressor.

Members of Jona's family, sitting in the public gallery, cried as Mr Chambers talked through the findings of the post mortem.

A toxicology report revealed that at the time of his death, Mr Jones had traces of cocaine and cannabis in his blood, but was well within the drink drive limit, while Chivers showed a reading of 113 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

Mr Chambers said that by working back it was possible to tell that at the time of the attack, Chivers was more than four times the drink-drive limit of 80mg. (BLOB) The jury were set to visit Columbus Close on Tuesday, and the case was due to continue today.