John Adams thrust a knife into the heart of the man he'd raised as a son to protect himself from a brutal attack.
The Melbourne man has been cleared of murdering his stepson Joel McDonald, with a jury finding he killed to save himself.
Adams, 55, had acted as a father to Mr McDonald since he was aged seven, but that didn't save him from his stepson's wrath when he arrived at his home angry and drunk.
Mr McDonald had tried to source a gun before confronting Adams, but ended up settling on a baseball bat and knife.
In a rage, he then ordered his partner Janet Conn to drive him to Adams' Brunswick East home.
Witnesses told his Victorian Supreme Court trial they saw two men grappling on the road outside the house.
Minutes later, Mr McDonald lay dead in the gutter.
The jury on Thursday cleared Adams of murdering his stepson on May 4, 2013.
He walked free from court with Mr McDonald's mother and his partner of 32 years, Cheryl McDonald.
She had described her 38-year-old son as an erratic character, with serious drug and alcohol problems.
Adams, she said, had been a loving father figure to her son up until the day he stabbed him to death.
"Joel was John's son," she told the trial.
The couple also played a major role in the life of Mr McDonald's 11-year-old daughter when he had custody of her on weekends.
But it was a disagreement over his daughter which began the chain of events that led to Mr McDonald's death.
The court heard that Mr McDonald flew into a rage when he learned his mother picked up his daughter from his Keilor home without permission.
Prosecutor Mark Rochford SC told the trial Adams did not believe he had to stab Mr McDonald to protect himself.
But Adams' defence barrister David Hallowes said his client was painted into a corner.
"It was Joel McDonald who bought the knife around and it was Joel McDonald who initiated the contact."
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