James Scobie KC (Garden Court Chambers) and Ruth Zentler-Munro were instructed and greatly assisted by Vanessa Wiggins of Bark & Co Solicitors, to represent JM a young man of previous good character, who was wrongly accused of having planned to execute a rival drug dealer, UM, in cold blood.
The Crown alleged that JM had obtained a burner phone the day before the killing took place, which was used in order to lure UM to the park anonymously. The evidence showed that JM had possession of large knives both before and after the fatal incident. CCTV evidence tracked JM going to and from home address to the scene, dressed head to toe in black and wearing a balaclava and hood. Witnesses -including an 11 year old child- described JM as looking angry and focussed, and that, by contrast, UM looking relaxed. Moments later a cry of pain was heard and UM ran away from the scene, having been fatally injured.
The defence team were dogged in ensuring that the Crown provided all the relevant unused material. This unused material was forensically examined and allowed the defence to successfully argued that UM’s previous connection with knives and gangs should be admitted, notwithstanding that he had no such previous convictions. This evidence was pivotal in being able to establish that it was UM who had brought the knife to the scene, rather than vice versa, which was determinative of the issue of self-defence.
