Accused handed himself to police
A police officer has told of the moment murder accused Daniel Smith walked into a police station to say he thought he had stabbed someone.
Prosecutors claim Smith stabbed pal Jonathan Carr to death then left him to die at his home in Gateshead, which he denies.
PC Adam Tate told jurors he had spoken to Smith on August 1 after he had been to hospital for treatment for injuries.
Later that day, he was back at the police station in Gateshead when Smith came in with his mother.
PC Tate told Newcastle Crown Court: “[Daniel] told me he believed he might have stabbed somebody last night and that his cousin had attended his father’s address and said Daniel had stabbed somebody.
“He claimed he couldn’t remember what happened.”
PC Tate said his colleagues forced their way into the address and found a man who had been “stabbed to death”.
The policeman said he and another officer then cautioned and arrested Smith on suspicion of murder, to which he replied: “Is he dead?”
Other witnesses told of the condition Smith was in during the hours after he is alleged to have killed Jonathan.
Claire Archer was at her sister’s home on Ellison Gardens, Deckham, when she became aware of him in a car park area near some garages.
Miss Archer said he had a bust lip and blood on his T shirt and asked her to help him. She said she watched as he fell against a wall then tumbled into some bushes and she phoned an ambulance for him.
Miss Archer said he was “crying, sobbing and moaning and groaning and wriggling round” after falling over.
Miss Archer told the court: “He couldn’t really speak because his lip was massive. He just kept saying he was sorry and wanted to see his daughter and was not allowed to see her. He didn’t say what he was sorry about, he just kept saying he was really sorry...He said he was going to kill himself a couple of times.”
Paramedics who attended the scene and took Smith to hospital said he appeared intoxicated and told them he had been drinking rum and tequila. A doctor who examined him at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, in Gateshead, said he had a cut to his upper lip consistent with a tooth partially puncturing it and a wobbly tooth.
Smith, 20, of Cotemede, Wardley, Gateshead, denies murder and the alternative of manslaughter.
The trial continues.