MAN DENIES BROTHER’S MURDER
COURT HEARS YOUNGER MAN WAS FOUND WITH FATAL STAB WOUND TO THE HEART AFTER ACCUSED TOLD POLICE HE HAD OVERDOSED
AMAN was discovered with a fatal stab wound to his heart after police were called by his brother, who claimed the man had overdosed and was ‘long gone.’
Daniel Millett, 45, of Cowler Walk in Bishopsworth, denies murdering his brother Marc Millett at the flat they shared between October 24 and 27 last year.
He is on trial at Bristol Crown Court, where all court users are subject to stringent two-metre social distancing due to coronavirus pandemic.
The judge, barristers and jury (some members of the panel in face masks) are using Court One and proceedings are being beamed by video link to police, press and members of the public in Court Two.
Christopher Quinlan QC, prosecuting, told Bristol Crown Court Daniel Millett called 112 and told the operator he had woken to find his younger brother Marc, 39, dead on the sofa.
The thrust of what he said was Marc was dead from a drugs overdose and was “long gone”, the jury heard.
Mr Quinlan said: “Daniel Millett told the operator three times his brother had taken Daniel’s prescription for methadone.
“He did not mention the blood which ran from the wound in his chest onto his trousers.
“You see Marc Millett was killed by a single stab wound to his chest which punctured his heart and killed him.”
The court heard Daniel Millett told police Marc had taken his (Daniel’s) methadone.
Mr Quinlan said: “He denied responsibility for the wound and that remains.
“He said ‘it was not me, it must have been another person or other people.’
“A whodunnit.”
Both brothers were drug users, prescribed Class A drug heroin substitute methadone, the court heard.
Mr Quinlan described them as “small-time street level dealers to feed their own needs”.
There had been incidents involving others and damage reported at the council flat they both used.
On one occasion Marc was injured by a machete but refused to make a formal complaint to police.
Usually the men collected their weekend methadone prescriptions together on a Friday.
The jury was shown CCTV clips showing how just Daniel Millett cycled to the Boots shop in Hartcliffe shopping centre on Friday, October 25.
They also saw him captured on CCTV cycling away from and towards Bishport Avenue from noon on October 26 – just a couple of hours before he reported that he had woken to find his brother dead.
The court heard evidence of how, on that day, Millett texted his mum Carol and told her Marc must have taken 100 tablets as well as Daniel’s methadone, and he couldn’t believe it.
After being charged with murder, Millett told police: “This ain’t right. I’ve just lost my brother. This ain’t right.”
He denied murder or causing any injury.
A post mortem revealed Marc suffered a fatal stab to his heart which was 10cm deep and caused “catastrophic” blood loss, mostly internally.
Crime scene investigators found spots of blood at the flat, some with Marc’s DNA and some with the accused’s.
There was also a knife recovered, without DNA.
The accused’s DNA was found near Marc’s fatal wound, the jury heard.
Mr Quinlan told the jury: “You can, we say, discard any other being responsible and be sure it was in fact Daniel Millett who inflicted the fatal wound.”
The case continues.
❝ He did not mention the blood which ran from the wound in his chest onto his trousers Christopher Quinlan QC, prosecuting