A drug dealer accused of murdering another man who was selling Class A drugs in the same area claimed he was attacked first.
Luke Eva, of Avondale Road, Leigh on Sea, was charged with killing Michael Haastrup after a fight in a flat in Cressing Road, Braintree on April 16.
Eva claimed Mr Haastrup armed himself with a knife an claw hammer and lunged at him over a drugs turf war.
The pair met at the flat of a mutual business partner Colin Cornelius, before the brawl started and eventually spilled out into the street.
Eva, 25, told Chelmsford Crown Court he managed to get the knife from Mr Haastrup's hand and "swing out" to protect himself and was "unaware" he made contact with his rival.
But prosecution barrister, Karim Khalil QC, quizzed Luke Eva over his version of events.
"Don't play Mr Eva," he said.
"You went into Colin's room to given yourself time to get out your knife? This was before you claim he came at you for a second time."
Eva replied: "When you're in that sort of situation you just act, you don't think."
"What did you do with the knife handle, did you throw it away?" said Mr Khalil.
"At the time you were a strong young man, built like a body builder.
"I think you stabbed him so violently you broke them in the course of doing it. Did you use that knife so forcefully that it snapped off in the stabbing?"
Eva replied: "It's a possibility, I swung it out, it could have broken after, I couldn't say for sure when there's weapons flying above your head, I was getting hit with sticks."
Mr Haastrup was stabbed in the left thigh and left side of the chest and Eva claimed he was crouching down facing Haastrup whist holding the serrated kitchen knife in his left hand.
But evidence from pathologist Dr Benjamin Swift showed Haastrup was stabbed with a downwards direction in the chest.
None of Eva's blood was found inside the flat.
"You're lying about what you did. Your story doesn't explain the stab to his left thigh or the stab into his heart," said Mr Khalil.
Eva also denied saying, "that's what you get," to Haastrup as he lay slumped against a garden wall.
"That's when it all hit home and I realised what a bad way he was in and I panicked," he said.
Two witnesses, James McGowan, whose coat was slashed in a confrontation with Eva outside the flat, and a 17-year-old girl said they saw Eva with a knife outside the flat.
She told the court last week she heard Mr Haastrup say to Eva whilst standing in the doorway of Cornelius's flat: "I'm going kill you because you stabbed me."
James McGowan told the court he co-operated with police because he wanted to make sure Eva got arrested, adding: "I wanted to make sure there was justice for Michael and that man over there in the dock gets what he deserves for killing Michael."
Tests on urine taken at Braintree police station revealed diazepam (for sleeping), cocaine (from the weekend), morphine (for come down) and cannabis.
Natalie White gave evidence that she saw Luke Eva on a train from Stratford at Shenfield talking about weed, shouting and threatening to stab the person at the other end of the line.
The jury were told of Eva history of drug and assault convictions.
June 6, 2006 - Possession of offensive weapon at the age of 14/15 in which he punched and bit his victim at a bus stop armed with a cosh or baton.
October 16, 2006 - Possession of cannabis found in his underwear and trying to get away from police.
August 11, 2009 – Denied assault causing actual bodily harm but was convicted after a trial of head-butting and chipping the tooth of his female victim after entering a house of a former partner and attacking her and her a female friend.
2009 – Possession of cannabis found in his trousers along with £480 cash.
July, 31 2010 - Possession of diazepam and cannabis and was stopped for drink driving.
October 22, 2010 – Eva was found by police stuffing packets of drugs into a bush as officers arrived £6,300 cash found in the house. Eva served a prison sentence for possession with intent to supply.
February 19, 2011 – Found after leaving the scene of a road traffic accident.
August 12, 2012 – Admitted threatening and abusive towards passengers on the top deck of a bus, along with three others.
