"He walked into my knife," accused murderer Glenn Keohokapu Jr. said from the witness stand yesterday in explaining how 19-year-old Steven Wilcox was fatally stabbed in the heart outside a Kane'ohe bar last year.

Keohokapu also said that at the outset of a fight between the men, Wilcox held a set of brass knuckles in the palm of his hand, but that Keohokapu didn't see them during the fight and didn't know if Wilcox had them on when he was trying to punch Keohokapu.

Police evidence specialist Doryn Matsuda testified that she recovered silver-colored brass knuckles from a bag of Wilcox's belongings at Castle Medical Center after Wilcox died.

Circuit Judge Virginia Crandall initially ruled that the brass knuckles could not be introduced as evidence in the trial but later reversed that ruling.

The story Keohokapu, 36, told in his own defense closely followed earlier versions delivered by his wife and brother, who accompanied the defendant to Club Komomai the night of June 7, 2008.

He said he became upset in the karaoke bar because Robin Gregory, a friend of Wilcox, was staring at Keohokapu's wife, Kauilani.

Keohokapu said he became "confused and angry" after his wife initially indicated she didn't know Gregory, but then said she had met him years earlier when she was a teenager.

He was arguing with his wife about that in the parking lot when the dispute with Wilcox began, Keohokapu testified.

Other witnesses said Wilcox intervened after Keohokapu pushed his wife against his car door.

But Keohokapu, his brother and his wife all testified that the brother actually pushed Kauilani Keohokapu away from the car where she was arguing with her husband.

Keohokapu said Wilcox took off his shirt and necklace chain when he advanced toward Keohokapu's car and also took the set of brass knuckles out of his back pocket, cupping them in the palm of his hand and showing them to Keohokapu, the defendant said.

"He wanted for fight," Keohokapu said, adding that he was "worried and scared" by both Wilcox and Gregory.

So he reached into his car and pulled out a folding knife with a 3 1/2-inch blade, he said.

Keohokapu said he opened the blade but held the weapon in his left hand down by his thigh and backed away from the oncoming Wilcox.

At one point, he said, he held the knife up and told Wilcox, "I going poke you" as a warning to make him stop, he said.

But Wilcox "kept coming after me," he said.

"He went swing with his left hand, I go for dodge his punch and that's when he went walk into my knife," Keohokapu said.

The victim, although fatally stabbed, tried to punch Keohokapu again and that's when the defendant saw the blood "spurting" from Wilcox, he said.

"I dropped the knife and went back to my car," Keohokapu said.

Under cross examination, Deputy Prosecutor Kristine Yoo asked Keohokapu if he saw a weapon in Wilcox's hand.

"I cannot recall," he answered.

He acknowledged looking for the brass knuckles when Wilcox threw three punches at him.

And he said he held his knife at chest level once to show Wilcox that he had the weapon, but had it "down by my hip" when Wilcox walked into the blade.