A man stabbed his friend to death during a drink-and-drug-fuelled argument on Boxing Day, a court heard.
Luke Miller, 23, was stabbed through the chest with a kitchen knife as he and his friend Taylor Fenwick, 22, grappled with the knife in the street outside Fenwick’s flat in Tadcaster town centre.
Leeds Crown Court heard that a teenage girl called 999 just after 7am on December 26 last year after finding Luke lying in a pool of blood in the street outside the Costcutter store in Commercial Street.
An ambulance crew arrived to find Luke laid out in the road, unresponsive and not breathing, while a group of friends tried to resuscitate him, prosecutor David Brooke KC told a jury on the first day of the murder trial.
“The girl on the phone was trying to take instructions from the 999 operator to try to (stem) the bleeding for about ten minutes,” added Mr Brooke.
Paramedics arrived to take over resuscitation attempts but his heart had stopped and he was pronounced dead at 7.48am.
Among the group of youths and young men present was Fenwick who appeared “frantic”. He told ambulance staff that he had “hit (Luke) once”.
When a paramedic asked those present who had stabbed Luke, Fenwick said: “I did.”
Fenwick then claimed that Luke had “tried to break into his house”.
When police arrived on the scene shortly afterwards, Fenwick told an officer: “I have done this – it’s me.”
He said he had “tried to save him, giving him CPR”.
Pierced lung
Mr Brooke said that Fenwick was “plainly very upset” and pleaded with paramedics to save his friend’s life, but Luke suffered fatal injuries from a single stab wound to the chest which pierced a lung and perforated the pulmonary artery. He also had cuts to his hand.
Fenwick, of Rosemary Court, Tadcaster, was charged with murder but denied the allegation. He appeared for trial yesterday (Monday) when the prosecution opened its case.
The court heard that Luke had stayed overnight at Fenwick’s two-bed flat above the Costcutter shop on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Day, Fenwick, Luke and several other friends went to a local pub before returning to Fenwick’s flat late at night where more drinks were consumed into the early hours of the morning.
It’s said that Fenwick and Luke had also been taking cocaine.
At some point, Luke got into an argument with one of the girls in the group due to his drunken behaviour and was kicked out of the flat by Fenwick who was “stressed” by the turmoil.
Luke was eventually let back into the flat, but by about 5am most of the Christmas revellers had gone home and the argument between Fenwick, Luke and the girl continued.
At about 7am, Fenwick again told Luke to leave the block of flats, which he did, said Mr Brooke.
‘Merry Christmas, Lukie’
The girl later told police she looked outside to see Luke and Fenwick “fighting with a knife”.
CCTV footage showed the two men “struggling over the knife” and then Luke “goes down on the ground”.
The female witness said that just before the stabbing in the street, she heard Fenwick say to Luke in the living room of the flat: “I can’t believe you’ve just said that.”
She said she dashed out into the street to find Luke “covered in blood” as he was “trying desperately to get the knife off (Fenwick)”, before collapsing to the ground.
Another male witness said he heard “screaming, arguments and raised voices” outside and a girl “calling for him to break up a fight”.
He saw the two men “fighting, grabbing each other’s shirts, grappling in the road, wrestling with the knife”, and then saw Luke “collapse to the ground, bleeding heavily”.
A female neighbour heard shouts of “Come on, then!” and a girl shouting “No!”
When police arrived, they found a bloodied kitchen knife in the hallway of the apartment block. It was assumed that this was the knife used to kill Luke and which was then dropped by Fenwick on his way back to the flat before the emergency services arrived.
In police interview, Fenwick told police he had told Luke to leave the flat due to his behaviour but he “didn’t accept this and tried to break in”.
“He said there was an initial struggle on the outside stairs (of the flats) and in desperation he ran into the flat, picked up the knife and went back to the outer door to frighten Luke with the knife,” added Mr Brooke.
Fenwick claimed there was then “another scuffle” on the stairs outside the flat and that, during the struggle, they both “stumbled down the stairs and the knife had gone into him”.
“He said he felt it go in,” said Mr Brooke.
The prosecution said that Fenwick was claiming it was “some sort of accident” on the stairs despite CCTV evidence showing he had taken a kitchen knife outside during the fracas with his friend.
Police seized the phones of Fenwick, the victim and key witnesses which showed that, after kicking Luke out of the flat, Fenwick had sent him a Snapchat message saying: “Merry Christmas, Lukie.”
The trial continues.