It was the evidence of a nine-year-old girl that swayed a jury into finding a Perth mum-of-three guilty of killing her boyfriend last year, a Supreme Court judge has revealed at her sentencing.
Claudia Federico denied she was responsible for the death of her partner, FIFO worker Joseph Nicoli, 35, after he bled out at their West Perth home in March 2023 after being stabbed with a knife she was holding during a “heated” argument.
Claudia Maria Federico was sentenced over the stabbing death of her partner.Credit: Facebook
Federico was charged with manslaughter but denied any responsibility, with the Supreme Court of WA on Monday hearing that she blamed her nine-year-old daughter, triple-zero operators and even Nicoli himself for facing criminal charges over the incident.
On Monday she was sentenced to 7½ years in jail over Nicoli’s death as Justice Robert Mitchell said the 34-year-old was at a high risk of reoffending. He outlined her lengthy criminal history which included breaches of violence restraining orders and previous charges of assault.
Justice Mitchell told the court “two competing accounts” of how Nicoli died were given to police by Federico and her young daughter, the judge then stating that he found the mum’s evidence lacked credibility while he found her daughter’s evidence compelling.
At trial last year, the court heard how Federico claimed to have been cutting carrots up as a snack for her daughter when she heard a noise upstairs and ran to see what it was, still holding the knife in her hand.
She then told a jury that she was halfway up the stairs when Nicoli came towards her and that he collided with the knife accidentally.
But a specialised child interview conducted via video recording was played to the jury where Federico’s daughter stated that she didn’t “even like carrots”, and said that her mum started to cut them up randomly while Nicoli lay bleeding on the stairs.
The girl then claimed she heard Nicoli say words to the effect of, “don’t do it Claudia”, before she responded with “don’t mess with me”.
“While she was only nine-years-old, it was an account given without any subterfuge, agenda or guide,” Justice Mitchell said.
The knife severed a major artery in Nicoli’s leg and six days later his life support machine was turned off as doctors discovered irreversible brain damage caused by blood loss.
Claudia Maria Federico was sentenced over the killing of her boyfriend two years ago.Credit: Facebook
The court heard both Federico and Nicoli were high on methamphetamine at the time of the incident.
“The state’s case is that the only reasonable explanation for that conduct (cutting the carrots) was that the accused was going to have to explain why she had a knife in her hand,” prosecutor Justin Whalley told the court at her trial.
“She had to explain why she had a knife in her hand when they met up on the stairs.
“Anyone who had been using a knife for culinary purposes would have left it on the worktop before going to do something else in the house.”
Federico then called triple-zero and asked for help, with operators instructing her to stem the bleeding with a clean towel but she later complained that the advice came too late as she had no first aid knowledge.
During her sentencing on Monday, Whalley read out a victim impact statement from Nicoli’s mother who said “a little bit of me died” the day her son was stabbed.
“I will never again in my lifetime be whole, it has left me a shell of a person,” the letter read.
“He did not deserve this, he did not want to die. His life meant something.
“Claudia did not just take one life that day, but two.”
Justice Mitchell said Federico would be eligible for parole after 5½ years with her sentence backdated to August last year.
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