A man accused of stabbing his love rival to death yesterday denied he was in a vicious, jealous rage when he fatally lashed out with a kitchen knife.

Randy (Chicken) Burgess, 34, of Cashew City, St. David's, told Supreme Court he acted out of self defence when he grabbed the nine-inch blade and struck Dean Antoine Young.

He said: "He was attacking me. I feared for my life. I just wanted to get him off.'' Burgess is charged with murdering Mr. Young last October 9 at a Border Lane, Pembroke home.

Yesterday prosecutor and Director of Public Prosecutions Khamisi Tokunbo claimed he went into a stabbing frenzy.

The prosecutor said: "It was not necessary to kill him. It was not necessary to cause him grievous bodily harm. Was it necessary to inflict 23 wounds on him externally? "It's more like you were in a jealous rage and frenzy.'' Burgess replied: "I had no intention of killing him. I had no intention of harming him. It happened in a matter of seconds.'' The court also heard that Mr. Burgess has three previous convictons for minor assault offences dating back to 1984.

Earlier the court heard the incident stemmed from a "love triangle gone bad'' involving Trina Todd.

At the time, she was the girlfriend of Burgess and the ex-girlfriend of Mr.

Young.

Miss Todd left Mr. Young, who was the father of her child, in March of last year after he found out about her long-running affair with Burgess.

Bad feeling grew between the two men for a number of months and Burgess and Miss Todd claimed Mr. Young threatened them.

Burgess admitted he was scared of Mr. Young, who was bigger and had a reputation of being a good fighter. The series of alleged threats finally resulted in Burgess informing the Police and Miss Todd consulting with a lawyer.

At about 2 a.m. on October 9, Mr. Young, 31, of Princess Estates, Pembroke, telephoned Miss Todd at her Border Lane home and heard her screaming.

Burgess was allegedly punching and choking her during a row over the future of their relationship and his unhappiness at the way she was treating him.

The prosecution claimed that during that phone call Burgess challenged Mr.

Young to come to the house, which he denied.

Mr. Young raced to the house and confronted Burgess in the kitchen.

Burgess claimed he was pinned up against the kitchen wall by his throat and was unable to escape.

The only option, he told the court, was to grab a knife and lash out.

In his final speech to the jury, Mr. Tokunbo asked them to forget Miss Todd's role in the triangle, but to remember that Mr. Young was killed.

He listed 23 points of circumstantial evidence, listing them A to W, and added: "Randy Burgess intended to take out Dean Young. He intended to cause his death. At minimum, he intended to cause him serious bodily harm. If that is so, he is guilty of murder.

"This is not a case of manslaughter. It's so gruesome, so brutal, so excessive, so extreme, so unnecessary, that it was an outright killing, not manslaughter.'' Burgess' lawyer Mark Pettingill countered by noting his client had always maintained that he was acting out of self defence.

He said: "Mr. Tokunbo was listing things in alphabet. I will finish the alphabet for you. Mr. Burgess has always maintained three things from the start of this case.

"He has said X, `I was terrified of him'; Y, `he attacked me and I knew he was going to hurt me'; and Z, `I defended myself'.

"I believe this is a tragedy. I believe it's tragic that a young man lost his life, but I don't believe it's murder. Remember X, Y, Z.

And he asked the members of the jury to imagine themselves being attacked by a large, vicious dog.

He said: "Do you hit the dog once and hope that it lets you go, or do you keep hitting the dog until he lets you go? "He knew he could not beat big Dean. What else could he have done to preserve himself in that moment of strife? "It's not a case of manslaughter. It's a case of murder and he should be acquitted. This is not a murder.

"If you come back and say guilty then you have to be able to say you are sure he intended to kill him, that he was not acting in self defence. With the greatest of respect, how could anybody say that?''