Andrina Smith was behind bars last night after being found guilty of killing her boyfriend Edward Allan (Sleepy) Dill.

A jury found her guilty of manslaughter over the stabbing at her Devonshire home in 2006, but cleared her of murder.

Smith - mother of Mr. Dill's baby daughter - was taken away in a prison van as angry members of his family shouted at hers in dramatic scenes outside Supreme Court.

Mr. Dill's first cousin Mstira Weeks said she was "hyped" as she had hoped Smith would be convicted of murder. Another cousin, Merate Phinn described herself as "frustrated".

Wendi Francis - mother of another of Mr. Dill's seven children - said: "I'm irritated. It's not enough. I thought I'd be happy it's guilty, but it's not enough."

Another woman - who did not identify herself - proclaimed loudly as she left court: "She should rot in jail."

Smith, 26, accepted during her 15-day trial that she fatally wounded Mr. Dill, 35, in the neck at her Cedar Park apartment in the early hours of October 16 2006. However, she pleaded self-defence.

During an emotional two days in the witness box last week, the petite defendant - who is around five ft tall - told the jury that her 200lb-plus boyfriend was violent during their four-year-relationship.

"Every time he hit me he would punch me in my face, pull my hair. I used to have black eyes and sometimes my mouth would be busted open. If I had to go out in public I would wear makeup to cover my black eyes."

On the night in question, she said she lashed out in self defence after Mr. Dill punched, slapped and tried to choke her. She had, she explained, swung at him with the first kitchen utensil that came to hand after he told her "I feel like f*****g killing you girl" and dragged her by the hair into a dark kitchen. He pushed me up against the counter and he started choking me and punching me in my face. I was trying to push him off of me but he was just too strong and he just kept doing it.

"I released my hand and I was feeling on the counter for something to hit him with and I felt a handle.

"I didn't know what it was. I knew it was some type of kitchen utensil.

"Once I picked it up I swung in his direction and he immediately let me go. I remember him putting his hand up to his neck and he ran inside," she told the court.

She explained that she never meant to hurt or kill her boyfriend.

"All I wanted him to do was just stop hitting me, that was it. I didn't mean for any of this to happen - I mean, we have a daughter together," she wept. "I have to look at her every day and see him. I have to one day explain to my daughter what happened to her father and I have to tell her that I was the one that caused it."

However, Senior Crown Counsel Carrington Mahoney outlined a different version of events on behalf of the prosecution. He told the jury that Mr. Dill slapped Smith during an argument and she reacted by getting a knife from the kitchen.

He claimed the enraged woman then plunged the blade through her bedroom door and into her boyfriend's neck while he was inside the room trying to block her out - and holding their one-year-old daughter in his arms.

He denied that the accused had suffered more than one slap - but this sparked her own violence.

"She was in such a rage. Such a rage that she was going to get him at all costs. We are not saying he was right to beat her...but then again, two wrongs don't make a right," he said.

The prosecutor showed the jury the wooden door in question, which had seven apparent stab marks in it - five of which went all the way through. US crime scene expert Jan Johnson said the "blood spatter" evidence showed the attack indeed happened in the bedroom, not the kitchen.

Eyewitnesses who gave evidence to the trial told how Smith beat the dying Mr. Dill's chest as neighbours tried to save him. They also testified that in the aftermath of the stabbing, Smith cried: "He beat me, he beat me, I just couldn't take it any more."

The blood-soaked woman, who also has a nine-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, was arrested at the scene.

A medical examination later saw Dr. Brenda Davidson list her injuries as including a black and swollen left eye, bleeding into the white of her left eye, a bruised and swollen left cheek, and a tender left jaw. In addition, she had bruising and minor swelling to her right eye, bruising and tenderness to her forehead, a stiff and painful neck and tender areas in her chest and groin.

Dr. Davidson said the injuries were consistent with more than one blow being inflicted on Smith.

Trial judge Carlisle Greaves told the jury yesterday that if they accepted Smith's argument of self defence, they should completely clear her name. However, he told the eight women and three men - who were one member down due to illness - that if they deemed Smith to have been provoked into stabbing Mr. Dill, this could reduce the charge from murder to manslaughter.

The jury eventually found her guilty of the lesser charge by a majority verdict after deliberating for three-and-a-half hours.

Defence lawyer Charles Richardson indicated to the court that he will seek a non-custodial sentence. He later indicated to this newspaper that he is likely to launch an appeal against her conviction.