HONOLULU -- The wife of a man accused of murder on Wednesday testified that she was not in danger when the victim intervened in their argument.

Steven Wilcox was called a hero last year after police said he died trying to rescue a woman from a fight with her husband.

Kauilani Keohokapu testified she did not need to be rescued and that she had nothing to fear from her husband.

Because they are still married, Keohokapu could have avoided testifying in her husband Glenn's murder trial. Instead, she described her husband's reaction inside Club Komo Mai, when another man was staring at her.

"My husband said, 'I no care you look at my wife. Just make sure you no touch. And he said, 'Eh, we no problem,'" Keohokapu said.

Outside the bar, Glenn Keohokapu accused his wife of looking at the other man. That sparked an argument. She said it was not violent and that her husband did not touch her or yell. Then when Wilcox came outside to intervene, he was told to butt out before he and Glenn Keohokapu started to fight.

"The fight went on for a very long time," Kauilani Keohokapu said.

When it was over, Wilcox was fatally stabbed. Kauilani Keohokapu said her husband rushed up to the car without a knife, but she would not let him in.

"Why don't you open the door for him when he was asking you to open the door?" the prosecutor asked.

"I was just looking at him shaking my head. He's saying 'Open the door,'" Kauilani Keohokapu said.

Prosecutors said she later told a friend she did not let her husband in the car because he was holding a knife. The prosecutor confronted her with that statement to imply she was lying to protect her husband.

"Did you tell her that you were scared for your life because he had a knife in his hand?" the prosecutor asked.

"No, I didn't," Kauilani Keohokapu said.

Because of court rulings against prejudicial evidence the jury will not be told that the Keohokapus had a violent relationship in the past. The night of the killing there was a temporary restraining order in place that was meant to keep the couple apart.