Teen guilty of stabbing boy, 13, to death

Jahziah Coke, 13, died after he was stabbed at a house in Oldbury

A teenager has been found guilty of murder, after a 13-year-old was stabbed and found dead in a house.

The body of Jahziah Coke, who was stabbed in the stomach and chest, was discovered in Oldbury, near Birmingham, by paramedics responding to a 999 call on 29 August.

The trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court was told the defendant, who cannot be named because of his age, fled the scene and caught a bus to a friend's house to play video games.

The teenager had denied murder, claiming the wounds were not deliberate, but a jury returned a guilty verdict, by a majority of 10 to two, on Friday.

The jury, made up of eight women and four men, deliberated the verdict for more than nine hours over three days, until they were given a majority direction by the judge.

The teenage defendant previously told the court he had been left traumatised after grabbing Jahziah's hands while being threatened with a knife.

He said he then twisted his hands towards the floor while attempting to calm down an argument about "missing" cannabis.

He claimed he did not have a knife in his own hands and dialled 999 before leaving the property once he believed Jahziah was dead.

Jahziah's body was found by paramedics in the hallway of a house

Sitting in the court beside his mother, Jahziah's killer showed no emotion as he watched the verdict being returned by the foreman.

A man in his 40s, who also cannot be named for legal reasons, was cleared of assisting an offender.

Police initially also charged a second teenage boy in relation to Jahziah's death but the case against him was dropped before the trial started.

The month-long trial heard that Jahziah was found dead in the hallway of the house, close to the foot of the staircase.

The jury was told forensic evidence, including diluted blood found on a kitchen chair, suggested attempts had been made to "clean up" something or someone after the killing.

Opening the case for the prosecution at the start of the trial, Kevin Hegarty KC told the court that police had searched the property and recovered knives, but none had any blood on them.

Following the verdicts, Mrs Justice Tipples thanked the jurors and said: "This, as you well know, has been a tragic case in which a 13-year-old child was killed."

Det Insp Nick Barnes, of West Midlands Police, said his thoughts "were with Jahziah's family and loved ones".

"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," he said.

Sentencing in the case and a ruling on a press application to lift reporting restrictions has been adjourned until June.