Murder accused says stab wound was not deliberate
BBCA teenager who denies murdering Jahziah Coke, 13, has claimed the alleged victim threatened him with a knife during a row about "missing cannabis".
The defendant, who cannot be named because of his age, told jurors he grabbed Jahziah's hands and twisted the blade towards the floor before seeing blood.
He said he was "hurt and traumatised" afterwards and that Jahziah, who was found in the a house in Oldbury, suffered a non-deliberate chest injury on 29 August last year.
Prosecutors at Wolverhampton Crown Court claim the youth inflicted a six-inch (15.2cm) stab wound and then fled to a friend's to play video games.
Giving evidence from behind a curtain, the youth said he had tried to calm down an argument involving another youth about some cannabis.
He also claimed he had seen Jahziah with a larger knife weeks before the incident, but that on the afternoon of 29 August the alleged victim picked up a smaller knife he had not seen before.
"He started threatening me with it," he told the jury. "He tried to go for me. I was kind of close to him and he came closer."
Defence counsel Paul Lewis KC asked him what he did next and the defendant replied: "Grabbed his hand – I got both of them.
"I twisted the knife towards the floor."
Asked again what happened next, he said: "I don't know. I just remember seeing blood and then – yeah – blood on my hands."
Mr Lewis asked the teenager what he remembered about how the fatal injury happened, and the youth answered: "I don't know. It all happened too fast."
He said he only realised Jahziah had been injured when he saw blood.
Jurors heard he dialled 999 at 16:05 BST to report someone had been stabbed and left the scene because he "didn't know what to do".
The defendant told the court he did not have the knife in his own hands and only left the property once he believed Jahziah was dead.
The trial continues.
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