Bristol Post

Court Murder trial jury shown CCTV footage of violent exchange

- Geoff BENNETT Court reporter geoff.bennett@reachplc.com

AJURY watched the movements of two men before they met by chance on a Bristol street.

And CCTV clips collated by police showed the vital seconds in which one of them was allegedly murdered.

Bristol Crown Court has heard Dontae Davis, 18, from Bishopswor­th, died from a stab wound to the chest after he and friends had a street confrontat­ion with rival Kairon Sawyers in October last year.

Though paramedics battled to save his life, Dontae died at the scene.

Sawyers, who was stabbed three times in the fight, was arrested after getting hospital treatment and is on trial for murder.

The 19-year-old, of Ewell Road, Whitchurch, denies the charge, saying he was acting in selfdefenc­e.

Gary Dark, a visual investigat­ion technician for Avon and Somerset Constabula­ry, took the jury through a series of CCTV clips focusing on the accused and the deceased on October 14 last year.

The first, at 4.46pm, showed Dontae and his 17-year-old friend walking towards Studio 8 of Pirate Rehearsal Studios in Lincoln Street.

Another clip showed them inside before they were joined by a 15-year-old youth. All three left the studio at 6.01pm.

At 6.18pm, Dontae and his two teenage friends were captured walking towards West Street, and Sawyers cycles by them, gets off his bicycle and heads towards Hassell Drive, followed by Dontae and the two youths.

The jury looked at residentia­l CCTV clips from Hassell Drive around 6.20pm, frame by frame.

Camera clips capture a violent exchange involving Sawyers and Dontae emerging from an alley and tussling.

It is alleged that in the secondslon­g confrontat­ion, Sawyers stabbed Dontae in the chest before being stabbed himself by the 17-year-old youth.

The case continues.

 ?? ?? Dontae Davis died from a stab wound to the chest
Dontae Davis died from a stab wound to the chest

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom