A fellow prison inmate has described how a man accused of murdering his former partner said he would kill her just days before she died in 2010.
Nikki Roper is accused of murdering Christchurch mother Alexsis Tovizi at her home in Stanmore Road in December 2010, taking her car and laptop and using her eftpos card.
The 24-year-old has denied all charges at the High Court in Christchurch.
The Crown has said Mr Roper killed the 21-year-old because he was jealous of her new boyfriend, but it says his defence will suggest he was assisting her suicide.
On Tuesday, the inmate, who has name suppression, told the court that he had had a conversation with Mr Roper just before he was released from jail for assaulting Ms Tovizi two months earlier.
The inmate told him to stay out of trouble and not to come back. To which Mr Roper replied, he would be back "for the big one" after killing her.
Mr Roper told the inmate that Ms Tovizi was cheating on him. The inmate said the reply seemed like a throwaway comment.
Also giving evidence was a psychiatric nurse said Alexsis Tovizi had a low to moderate risk of self-harm or suicide just before her death.
Ms Tovizi was seen by Bryan Geer on 19 November 2010 after she was taken to hospital for drinking beer and overdosing on prescribed anti-depressants.
Mr Geer told the court that Ms Tovizi told him she had drunk five beers and taken four or five anti-depressant pills.
She told him it was for recreational use and if she had wanted commit suicide, she would have consumed the whole bottle of pills.
