After stabbing her flatmate, Suzie Sarkis, Ms Abdallah took two knives to the kitchen sink and washed them while she was on the phone reporting an accident to an emergency operator.

Prosecutors at the trial of Ms Abdallah, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Sarkis, have told the jury this was her attempt to cover up her actions.

But defence barrister, Gregory Stanton, said the recorded triple-0 calls and CCTV footage from the Brighton Le-Sands townhouse on the evening of February 9, 2013, are evidence that she was acting in self-defence.

"She makes the triple-0 call, the first phone call recorded. This is hardly the [action] of someone who is involved in a cover-up," Mr Stanton told the jury in his closing address in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.

"You hear the utter angst, and anguish and distress in her voice.

"This expression of distress, these distressed and anguished cries of regret, the crown says, are indicative of her guilt. With great respect, they may well be indicative of the opposite.

"They are indicative of someone who has acted in self-defence and, despite the necessity to do so, regrets the consequences.

"That does not make her guilty of the offence of murder, or of manslaughter.

"When she's making the triple-0 call … the home is strewn with glass and paper and a broken phone and other bits and pieces on the floor; a state of chaos which was affected by the actions of Suzie Sarkis."

Mr Stanton said some of Ms Abdallah's actions in the moments after the stabbing were "foolish", but she was emotional, frazzled and irrational.

The trial has heard that the women started fighting because Ms Sarkis was caught by police speeding in Ms Abdallah's Mercedes and had damaged the front wheel when she hit a gutter on the evening of February 8.

The next morning, the women fought inside the apartment and then later on a street outside a tanning salon, Crown prosecutor Siobhan Herbert said.

The court heard the fight continued when the women returned to their apartment that afternoon, when Ms Sarkis smashed a large glass vase and walked towards the front door to leave.

Ms Herbert said Ms Sarkis reacted violently when Ms Abdallah stopped her from going, and the women continued to scuffle before Ms Abdallah went to the kitchen and got two knives.

Mr Stanton said Ms Abdallah had "copped a hiding, an unrelenting punishment" from Ms Sarkis and the CCTV showed she was having trouble getting up and standing.

"Her movement into the kitchen was not one in which a careful and premeditated decision … was made. It was made in an instant."

He said it was "reasonable and appropriate" that, in the circumstances she found herself in, Ms Abdallah armed herself with knives.

"It might be a different case if she pursued Suzie Sarkis around the room … with the two kitchen knives with which she was armed, but she maintained her apprehensive stance."

Ms Sarkis was "steeled for action" and didn't show any sign of relenting, Mr Stanton told the jury.

"By the time Suzie Sarkis confronted Katherine Abdallah at the edge of the kitchen … it must be clear to this accused that this woman will not leave her be. She pursued her relentlessly across that unit."

Justice Christine Adamson is summing up the case to the jury, before the eight men and four women retire to consider their verdict.