"She's already been sentenced -- her husband is dead, she's an emotional wreck," defence lawyer John Corona said in a Winnipeg courtroom Friday. "This case deals with two grossly intoxicated individuals. There was absolutely no intent to kill."

"He said '[Rose McDougall] did this to me,' " [Mike Desautels] said. McDougall's father-in-law dragged the injured man to a jeep and rushed him for medical treatment. Rose McDougall emerged from her own residence, still holding the bloody knife, with the couple's two young children at her side.

"Life has returned to a sense of normalcy," Corona said. He said it would be a "double tragedy" to take away the children's mother after they already lost their father.