A woman facing charges of murdering her husband is accused of faking suicide notes supposedly left by him.
Helen Milner is charged with two counts of attempted murder and one of murdering her husband, Philip Nisbet in May 2009. She is also accused of having asked her son to kill him for $20,000.
Ms Milner has entered a plea of not guilty in the High Court in Christchurch.
The 50-year-old is accused of giving her husband an overdose of an anti-histamine medication which either killed him outright or allowed her to smother him in his sleep.
Crown prosecutor Kathy Basire told the court on Monday that Helen Milner showed several people a suicide note supposedly written and signed by Philip Nisbet.
After some of those people questioned the authenticity of the signature, Ms Milner gave police another suicide note without the hand-written signature and with different content.
All details around the charges, including the accused's name, were previously suppressed.
A jury of seven men and five women was empanelled for the trial, expected to last three weeks.
