Matthew Smith was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter
Marley Gascoine(Image: Nottinghamshire Police)
A 20-year-old Nottingham man has been found guilty of killing a friend with a zombie knife in a St Ann’s underpass.
Following a trial at Nottingham Crown Court, a jury spent almost four days deliberating before acquitting Matthew Smith of murdering Marley Gascoine and instead delivering a guilty verdict to a lesser charge of manslaughter.
The defendant showed little emotion in the dock when the verdicts were delivered.
And the public gallery, containing family members of both the killer and the victim, remained impeccably behaved as they have throughout the trial.
The victim, also 20, died from a single stab wound to the chest which punctured his heart at around 12.50pm on November 10, last year.
Despite the best efforts of the people who attended and the emergency services, he died at the scene in Robin Hood Chase.
Adjourning sentence until September 7, Judge Steven Coupland said: “Mr Smith the jury have convicted you of manslaughter and I am going to adjourn your sentence for the preparation of a pre-sentence report owing to your age.
“I am going to remand you into custody until then.”
Marley Gascoine lost his life after being stabbed on November 10(Image: Oliver Pridmore/Nottingham Post)
Giving evidence Smith, of First Avenue, Carlton, said it was Mr Gascoine who pulled the blade from his waistband and lunged towards him.
He said he then disarmed him of the weapon and in the melee the victim suffered the fatal injury.
He told the jury: “I did not thrust it or even make a stabbing action, I used my hand to push him, that is, I wanted to get him away.
“I definitely did not see any of the knife go in.”
The trial heard how Mr Gascoine and his friend Dominic Bingham were out in St Ann’s on an electric bike on the day he was fatally stabbed.
Prosecutor Kath Goddard KC said Smith and a fourth man called Slavomir Draskovic were also out on an electric bike and the group, who all knew each other, were all involved in selling drugs.
She said a possible motive was a £6,000 debt the deceased allegedly owed and after the four friends all initially met at a different nearby underpass the two groups went their separate ways.
Ms Goddard said they then came together again later in Robin Hood Chase before Smith dropped Mr Draskovic off at a house and returned alone.
Once back, the stabbing happened.
Floral tributes were left at the underpass in Abbotsford Drive after a 20-year-old man died following a stabbing(Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC)
Smith then fled from the scene to a nearby house and disposed of the weapon and the clothing he was wearing.
Ms Goddard, when she cross-examined the killer, asked Smith: “What happened in those seconds from the moment you got to the underpass and parked your bike?”
He replied: “I jumped off my bike, it was two or three seconds, he (Marley) had angry and staring eyes, that’s when I noticed his hand come out of his pocket dramatically and he pulled out the knife.
“I grabbed the sheath and he lunged towards me, I did not thrust it or even make a stabbing action, I used my hand to push him, that is I wanted, to get him away.
“I definitely did not see any of the knife go in.”
The barrister said: “It was you that produced the knife in the underpass wasn’t it?”
He replied: “No.”
Ms Goddard said: “Did you mean to scare him, waving that knife around to make a point?”
Smith replied: “No. I had no idea he had been stabbed, (did not see) the knife go in, any blood, or anything like that.”
Ms Goddard said: “Others tried to help Marley, why didn’t you?”
He replied: “Because he’d just tried to stab me.”
Smith will be sentenced on September 7.
