Accused killer Maged Al-Harazi has denied he planned to skip the country after he allegedly stabbed his wife 57 times with a knife as she tried to protect their 10-month-old son.
The Crown's cross-examination of Mr Al-Harazi continued when he took to the stand for the third day to defend himself, one month into his ACT Supreme Court jury trial.
Mr Al-Harazi, 36, pleaded not guilty to murder after Sabah Al-Mdwali, 28, was found dead on a bed inside the pair's Gordon home in March 2015. He blamed the killing on her father and brother.
The trial has heard the couple often fought about where they would live; Mr Al-Harazi wanted to return to their native Yemen, while Ms Al-Mdwali wanted to stay in Australia.
Prosecutor Shane Drumgold on Friday questioned the accused about why police found his passport and travel documents for the pair's three children in Mr Al-Harazi's car the night of his wife's murder.
"I want to suggest the passport was in the car for one reason and that is, you thought if you could get to the police and tell them it was [Ms Al-Mdwali's father and brother] that killed Sabah, that it would give you time to leave the country," Mr Drumgold said.
Mr Al-Harazi, through an Arabic interpreter, replied: "I never thought that way. This had never crossed my mind. These are only speculations."
Later, Mr Drumgold closed his questioning by running through events in the lead-up to Ms Al-Mdwali's death.
Mr Al-Harazi agreed he had desperately wanted to return to Yemen, but said he hadn't destroyed furniture at the couple's house so his wife had nothing left and would move back with him.
He rebuffed the Crown's suggestion he'd lost his job in the hours before the killing, which left him with no means to replace furniture and buy jewellery for his wife, as was required under an agreement struck with his father-in-law.
The witness denied that job loss was compounded by the fact his wife was signing a fresh 12-month lease on their property that day, meaning he was stuck in Australia for another year.
Mr Drumgold said a fight lasting five hours had broken out between the pair the night of March 16, during which Mr Al-Harazi ripped his wife's Australian citizenship certificate in two.
"I'm suggesting at 2am Sabah was breastfeeding [the baby] in your bedroom," he said. "You lost your temper."
The accused said those suggestions were in the prosecutor's imagination.
"You armed yourself with a knife, you entered the bedroom and you stabbed Sabah 20 times," Mr Drumgold said.
Mr Al-Harazi: "This accusation is not true."
Mr Drumgold: "I'm suggesting as you were stabbing her she rolled forward to protect [the baby] and in your anger, you stabbed her 30 more times in the back while she laid motionless."
"I don't agree," Mr Al-Harazi said. "Her father and brother would have done it."
Mr Drumgold suggested the accused then hatched a plan. He told his children the two men killed Ms Al-Mdwali and put the travel documents in the car. He then drove to Tuggeranong police station, disposing of the knife used in the attack on the way.
"You then told [police] the story you made up, hoping to be released ... Hoping to return to Yemen after you were released."
Mr Al-Harazi said: "My account I told them was true, why would I make something up like that?"
Mr Drumgold ended his cross-examination by saying: "I say it was you who killed Sabah in the early hours of March 17, 2015."
The accused replied: "No, I don't agree to that."
His trial continues.