Husband found not guilty of murdering wife in brutal stabbing attack in Kippa Ring, Queensland

Husband is found NOT guilty of murder after stabbing his wife 29 times before using a concrete bollard to bludgeon her to death because he thought she was cheating on him

  • Brisbane Supreme Court finds Arona Peniamia not guilty of murdering wife 
  • Mr Peniamia stabbed his wife Sandra 29 times including 15 times to the head 
  • He then bludgeoned her to death in the driveway of their Kippa Ring home 
  • Jury found Mr Peniamia guilty of manslaughter & will be sentenced next month 


A jealous husband has been found not guilty of murdering his wife in a brutal stabbing attack that left the tip of the kitchen knife he used lodged in her head.     

Arona Peniamia attacked his wife Sandra at their Kippa -Ring residence, northeast of Brisbane, in 2016.  

Deliberations took place over the course of three days this week with the jury informing the Brisbane Supreme Court it could not reach a unanimous verdict on the charge of murder, the The Courier Mail reported.

Justice Peter Davis accepted a majority ruling on the charge of manslaughter after 11 of the 12 jurors were also unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Arona Peniamia (pictured) was found guilty of the manslaughter of his wife Sandra in a stabbing attack at their Kippa Ring residence in 2016

The father-of-four wept and hugged his Samoan translator from the dock as the verdict of manslaughter was delivered, the publication reported. 

He was originally found guilty for the murder of his wife in 2018 but the High Court ordered a retrial last year after it found the judge had incorrectly instructed the jury on the defence of provocation. 

The defence considers whether a person’s moral culpability is reduced when they have lost self-control as a result of an act or insult, in which case they would be convicted of manslaughter, not murder.  

The court heard the couple’s relationship was rocky and they had been arguing in a bedroom on the day Mrs Peniamina was killed.

Her husband believed she was having an affair and he would lose his children if she left.

Mr Peniamina punched his wife during the dispute before she ran to the kitchen to arm herself with a knife. He took it from her during a tousle. 

Sandra Peniamina (pictured) died after her husband stabbed then bludgeoned her to death after an argument in 2016

Sandra Peniamina (pictured) died after her husband stabbed then bludgeoned her to death after an argument in 2016

He then stabbed her 29 times with a kitchen knife, including 15 times to the head, splitting her nasal septum open and knocking out a tooth while leaving the tip of the blade still lodged in her skull. 

After she tried to escape the home drenched in blood, he chased her down their driveway before he beat the back of her head with a concrete garden bollard. 

The handle of the knife he used was later found by police underneath the family’s parked car, the blade was discovered nearby and its tip was lodged in the woman’s head. 

The jury was shown crime scene photos with blood spattered across the dining room and kitchen floors, on kitchen cupboards and the inside of the front door. 

Mr Peniamina later told an undercover police officer his wife had tried to kill him, the court heard.

At least one of the couple’s children saw the attack and told police of seeing their father ‘smashing’ their mother’s head into the floor. 

Mr Peniamina will face sentencing for manslaughter later next month.

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk