Vic man guilty of murder during robbery

A man has pleaded guilty to stabbing a Victorian jeweller to death during a robbery-gone-wrong.

Dermot O'Toole, 64, was fatally stabbed as he came to the aid of his wife who was being attacked by the man during an armed robbery.

Mr O'Toole fell to the ground during a tussle with the man and he was was stabbed twice.

Police allege the burglar, whose name is suppressed, made off with just $200 worth of jewellery.

The 26-year-old on Monday pleaded guilty to murdering Mr O'Toole.

Mr O'Toole's wife of 42 years, Bridget O'Toole, told police her husband was killed as he rushed to help her.

"He (the burglar) was coming at me, I was trying to push him to the door so people would come and help us," she said in statements tendered to Melbourne Magistrates Court.

"Dermot was trying to protect me and himself. It was frenzied."

The couple had run the jewellery story in Hastings on the Mornington Peninsula for 27 years.

The man will next appear in the Victorian Supreme Court in April.