A Brisbane fashion designer who killed her husband by throwing a knife into his heart five days before Christmas has used religion to try and diminish her crime.
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Katie Anne Castel has been labelled remorseless for the manslaughter of Jarred Paul Castel in Chapel Hill in Brisbane's inner-west in 2017.
She threw a 20cm knife at him during an argument in their kitchen over him coming home late.
It lodged in Mr Castel's chest and pierced his heart.
He pulled it out - but the four-centimetre wound proved fatal.
Prosecutors said her act was "totally disproportionate" to the mundane argument.
Her husband was neither threatening nor violent towards her.
"She grabbed the weapon in circumstances where she was angry and annoyed," crown prosecutor Judy Geary told Brisbane Supreme Court.
Castel, the mother of the couple's five-year-old son, pleaded guilty on Tuesday.
In sentencing her to nine years in jail, Justice Jean Dalton said Castel's violence was unprovoked and unexpected.
"This is offending by someone who can't manage her emotions," Justice Dalton said.
But what concerned the judge the most was Castel's inability to comprehend the hurt she's caused.
"You are writing as somebody who has a religious faith, but who uses religion in a way to avoid coming to terms with the reality of what you have done," Justice Dalton said.
"The letter, to me, has ... inappropriate details about concerns for your own plight and inappropriately expresses tones of religious superiority about being in some sort of state of grace.
"It talks almost from a position having, in some almost-religious way, risen above everything.
"It does leave me with a very clear impression that she does not understand in a real way ... what she has done and the harm she has caused."
Mr Castel's father, brother and sister remember him as a beloved, kind and caring family member whose death has caused significant emotional and financial hardship.
But they attacked Castel, in victim impact statements heard in court.
They claim she had no remorse and had been psychologically abusing her husband.
"Jarred's killing is made further painful by the lack of genuine remorse and the hypocritical nature of the communication my family and I have been subjected to by Katie and her connections," her brother-in-law Ryan Castel said.
"I found the pseudo-religious tones of Katie's only letter to my family highly offensive."
The court has heard she comes from a broken home and suffers anxiety.
Outside court, Mr Castel's family expressed sadness for the plight of the couple's son, Levi.
"Anytime I do something that reminds him of daddy, he will talk about Jarred," Ryan Castel said.
Castel, 38, was not give an parole eligibility date.
With time already served, she will be released in 2026.
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Australian Associated Press
