Man on trial after father fatally stabbed on Christmas Day

Garth Michael Reid is on trial for murder after a father offended his daughter with a Christmas Day joke before being fatally stabbed, a jury has heard.

Everyone was in good spirits at Warren Toby's family Christmas gathering until he told a joke that offended his daughter, a court has heard.

She was persuaded to stay but when Toby tried to stop his daughter's partner Garth Michael Reid from leaving, he was fatally stabbed in the front yard.

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"'I'll show you what violence is' - those words ... were used by the defendant on the night that he stabbed his girlfriend's father to death," Crown prosecutor Matt LeGrand told a Brisbane Supreme Court jury on Monday.

Toby, 55, was hosting the Christmas Day 2020 family gathering at their North Ipswich home when his daughter Kieran arrived with her partner Reid.

The night was going well with people playing board games, chatting and drinking.

However, the mood soured after Toby made a joke his daughter felt was at her expense.

"It did not seem that Warren meant anything by it but certainly Kieran took great offence to his joke," LeGrand said.

She planned to leave with Reid but Toby was able to convince his daughter to stay, warning her that she should not be drink driving.

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Soon afterwards the daughter heard the front gate opening and saw an intoxicated Reid near his ute, the jury was told.

She said she went outside and stood between the ute and Reid in a bid to stop him from going.

The daughter told the jury that as her father closed the front gate, Reid punched her in the head and moved toward Toby.

Knocked to the ground by the alleged blow, the daughter said she looked up and it appeared that Reid was punching her father in the chest.

"The evidence will show these were not merely punches - they were strikes with a knife," LeGrand said.

Toby was stabbed twice in the chest with one blow piercing his heart.

LeGrand said the wound that penetrated Toby's heart resulted from a knife being driven down to the base of the blade and "pressed further still".

An ambulance arrived within five minutes of being called but Toby was pronounced dead in the front yard at 12.10am on Boxing Day.

LeGrand said Reid lashed out with violence when his attempts to leave met resistance, describing it as nothing other than an unjustified act of aggression causing death.

"In other words, this was a murder," he said.

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Reid then allegedly drove back to his Woodridge home where his cousin also lived and smashed the back window of his partner's car that was parked outside the residence.

Reid went inside the house and handed the knife to his cousin, telling him that Toby and one of his sons had rushed him "so he stepped forward and stabbed Warren", LeGrand said.

Reid, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murder at the trial before Justice Peter Callaghan.

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