A teenager has been convicted of murdering a 13-year-old boy during what he told jurors was a drug-related row.
A month-long trial heard Jahziah Coke died at a house in Oldbury, West Midlands, on August 29 last year after suffering a six-inch deep chest wound inflicted with severe force which almost completely cut through one of his ribs.
Jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court deliberated for nine hours and 31 minutes over three days before convicting a teenage boy, who cannot be identified because of his age, by a majority 10 to two verdict.
The youth, sitting in the well of the court beside his mother, showed no emotion as he watched the verdict being returned by the foreman of the jury.
A co-defendant aged in his 40s, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was cleared of assisting an offender by harbouring the youth before his arrest.
Jahziah’s killer, who denied deliberately inflicting any injuries, fled over fences and then caught a bus to a friend’s house to play video games in the hours after the killing, the court heard.
Jurors were told the victim was found dead in the hallway of the house, close to the foot of a staircase, by paramedics responding to a 999 call made by the defendant.
Forensic evidence, including diluted blood found on a kitchen chair, suggested an attempt had been made to “clean up” something or someone after the killing.
Sentence in the case and a ruling on a press application to lift reporting restrictions has been adjourned until June.
After the verdicts, Mrs Justice Tipples thanked jurors for their hard work and attention to the case, and excused the panel from future jury service for life.
The judge told the jurors: “This, as you well know, has been a tragic case in which a 13-year-old child was killed.”
The teenage defendant told the jury during his evidence last month that he was left traumatised after grabbing Jahziah’s hands while being threatened with a knife, which he twisted towards the floor, during an attempt to calm down an argument about a “missing” quantity of cannabis.
He also told jurors he did not have the knife in his own hands and had dialled 999 to summon paramedics, only leaving the property once he believed Jahziah was dead.
Opening the case for the Crown at the start of the trial, prosecutor Kevin Hegarty KC told the court police searched the property and recovered knives but none had any blood on them.
Commenting after the case, Detective Inspector Nick Barnes, of West Midlands Police, said officers could not be sure what led to the attack on Jahziah, saying: “No one has given us anything concrete that we necessarily know to be the truth.”
The senior officer added: “It’s an awful set of circumstances. To leave a 13-year-old boy inside a house taking his last breaths and then just thinking about yourself and running away is pretty heartless.
“It’s such a young child losing his life at such a young age with his whole life ahead of him. Obviously, our thoughts go out to the friends and family of the victim.”
Details of the address where Jahziah was found cannot be published because of a court order.
A second boy was charged with murder but the case against him was dropped before the trial began, when “further material” came to light, which meant there was no longer a reasonable prospect of his conviction.
