Trista Ann Spicer testified on Monday, Oct. 27, that she killed her boyfriend in self-defense at her home in San Bernardino in 2014, telling jurors hearing her murder trial that she smashed his skull with a two-handed blow of a cast-iron skillet and sliced his throat with a knife he had stabbed her with a few minutes earlier as he threatened to kill her.

The force of the blows broke the pan’s handle, said Spicer, 46.

“All I could think was I was going to die,” Spicer told defense attorney Gary W. Spicer at the San Bernardino Justice Center.

Spicer has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder.

Spicer also acknowledged that with the help of a friend, she wrapped 42-year-old Eric Mercado’s body in an air mattress and concealed it in a storage area beneath concrete steps in the backyard.

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