Aretha Wilson is charged in an assault on her ex-boyfriend in Toronto as well as in the Hollywood party slashing of actor Leonardo DiCaprio. (Todd Gillis, Sun Media file photo)

TORONTO - The woman accused of slashing Leonardo DiCaprio at a posh Hollywood party took the stand at Old City Hall on similar charges yesterday.

Aretha Wilson, 38, told her version of events for more than two hours regarding a Super Bowl Sunday incident in which police allege she smashed a beer stein into her ex-boyfriend's head before he made a fatal plunge from his eighth-floor Toronto balcony.

Crown witness Colin Shand previously testified Wilson attacked 34-year-old Wyatt Cote with a Stella Artois beer stein while Cote stood in or near the bathroom of his Danforth and Broadview Aves. area apartment.

But Wilson, who is charged with assault, said yesterday it was Cote who threw the stein at her -- along with various other items from the bathroom -- hitting her in the head before the glass shattered on the floor.

Wyatt then charged her, pushed her to the ground and began choking her before she hit him over the head with a lamp, Wilson said.

Moments later, Cote was dead on the ground outside.

The ex-couple had been living together for two or three months before the Feb. 5, 2006 altercation, she said.

Wilson had returned to Toronto from Los Angeles in June or July of the previous year -- around the time an arrest warrant was issued for her in L.A. where she is wanted on one count of assault with a deadly weapon involving movie star Leonardo DiCaprio.

It was the early morning hours of June 17, 2005 at a party thrown by Paris Hilton sex-tape star Rick Salomon. Party guest DiCaprio later told police he recognized Wilson as his pal's ex-girlfriend.

"As he turned away to walk away from her, he felt something wet on his back," LAPD officer Karen Smith told the Sun earlier this year. "When he turned around, she hit him on the neck and side of his head with a glass."

The incident left DiCaprio with 17 stitches -- 10 to his ear and seven to his neck. Although LAPD authorities said they hope to extradite Wilson so she can face her charges there, that won't be possible until her case has gone through here.

The investment manager wept as she recalled a recently unemployed Cote going over the balcony after Shand told him, "Wow, she really got you," before turning to Wilson and saying, "Aretha, you got him pretty good," she said.

Cote had become increasingly angry with her, beginning with a confrontation about her using his computer to play poker earlier in the day, Wilson said. The pair went to the nearby Black Swan bar to watch part of the football game before Wilson left a drunk Cote behind and went back to the apartment.

He returned, angry to find her and Shand playing Party Poker on his computer, Wilson testified. He then left the apartment briefly before returning and throwing his computer monitor on the floor, she said.

Crown attorney Karen Simone suggested it was Wilson who threw the computer.

After calling Wilson a whore, Cote left the apartment, Wilson said. Wilson followed him and said, "Your mother," before he rushed back to the apartment and "immediately his hands were around my neck," she said.

That altercation ended with scratches to both Wilson and Cote's faces, she said.

Justice Bruno Cavion will decide Tuesday whether he believes Cote threw the beer stein at Wilson or vice versa. Had Cote not thrown himself off the balcony, Cavion said yesterday, "he would be charged, too."

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