There is no dispute that it was Jo-Ann Graham who stabbed her housemate to death in their unit at Muswellbrook in 2023.
But a judge-alone trial in Newcastle Supreme Court in August will focus solely on whether Graham, now 55, was suffering from schizophrenia at the time and has available to her a defence of mental health impairment.
The Newcastle Herald reported last year that Graham would pursue a special verdict of act proven but not criminally responsible after she pleaded not guilty to murder over the death of 60-year-old Deidre "Dee" Folpp, who was stabbed to death in their unit in Sydney Street sometime between October 26 and 31, 2023.
In September, the matter was set down for a four-week trial with as many as 70 witnesses expected to be called.
During a directions hearing in NSW Supreme Court on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Brendan Queenan revealed the matter was now a judge-alone trial that would take only a few days and only call evidence from two expert forensic psychiatrists.
"It is proposed that we would tender a brief of evidence, there being no dispute as to what is alleged to have occurred," Mr Queenan said.
"The single issue for [the judge] to determine is whether the defence of mental health impairment is available."
The court heard there was "some consensus" between the experts that Graham had a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but the prosecution expert had an "alternative or differential diagnosis of drug-induced psychosis".
The judge-alone trial is listed to start on August 24.
Police have said they were first called to the Muswellbrook unit about 7.20am on October 30, 2023 in relation to a concern for welfare.
They spoke to Graham and left the property a short time later.
At 7pm that night, police were called to a licensed club, also on Sydney Street, after reports Graham was behaving erratically.
She was arrested and taken to Muswellbrook police station and then Muswellbrook Hospital and the Mater Hospital for assessment.
Police were called back to the Sydney Street home about 8.30pm to conduct a welfare check and found Mrs Folpp's body.
She had suffered head injuries and multiple stab wounds.
Police set up a crime scene and called in the State Crime Command's Homicide Squad to investigate the circumstances of her death.
Crime scene officers spent days at the property photographing and seizing evidence.
Meanwhile, Graham spent nine days at the Mater Hospital before she was discharged and then charged with murder.
After her arrest, the criminal proceedings against Graham moved slowly through the local court while prosecutors and defence lawyers sought expert psychiatric reports focusing on Graham's state of mind at the time of Mrs Folpp's death.
