diff --git a/src/hotspot/share/classfile/javaStackTraceClasses.cpp b/src/hotspot/share/classfile/javaStackTraceClasses.cpp
index 066e5a6fadf..c3ae1b2c845 100644
--- a/src/hotspot/share/classfile/javaStackTraceClasses.cpp
+++ b/src/hotspot/share/classfile/javaStackTraceClasses.cpp
@@ -818,7 +818,7 @@ void java_lang_Throwable::get_stack_trace_elements(int depth, Handle backtrace,
     THROW(vmSymbols::java_lang_IndexOutOfBoundsException());
   }
 
-  refArrayHandle result(THREAD, backtrace());
+  refArrayHandle result(THREAD, refArrayOop(backtrace()));
   BacktraceIterator iter(result, THREAD);
 
   int index = 0;