A SYDNEY woman who allegedly stabbed her husband with an antique knife claims she has little memory of the event because she had taken drugs to kill herself, a court has heard.

Danielle Stewart, 32, is on trial in the Supreme Court for the murder of her husband, Chaim Kimel, 55, who died from two stab wounds to the abdomen on August 24, 2006.

Stewart, who had a blood alcohol level of 0.42 at the time of the stabbing, is claiming she acted in self-defence. She sobbed as the Crown prosecutor John Pickering told the jury the couple had argued loudly in their Rose Bay apartment after returning from dinner and drinks with friends.

During the argument Stewart had "deliberately and intentionally" taken the knife from the lounge room with the intention to kill Mr Kimel, said Mr Pickering.

A witness in the apartment that night, who cannot be named, heard loud thuds against the walls and doors. At one point he said he heard Mr Kimel say: "Why are you being so violent and attacking me?" and a few minutes later he heard Mr Kimel say, "What are you doing? Are you crazy?"

Mr Kimel was taken to hospital but died on the operating table, the court heard.

In a letter to the couple's friend written a month after the stabbing, Stewart said she was ashamed and horrified by what she had done. She said she had little memory of events leading up to Mr Kimel's death as she had taken a whole packet of the sleeping drug Seroquel drugs to help her sleep.

"I never meant to hurt Chaim let alone kill him. I had taken a whole pack of Seroquel as I think I was trying to kill myself," Stewart wrote.

Her barrister, Belinda Rigg, said her client had borderline personality disorder and that Mr Kimel had been both physically and emotionally abusive towards her in the past, resulting in her requiring hospital treatment.

The trial continues.