‘Drugs-war killer burned clothes to cover tracks’
AMAN who admitted the murder of a drugs dealer later tried to get rid of incriminating evidence, a court heard.
Jake Melia had set fire to clothing on a railway line in Liverpool, Mold Crown Court was told.
Melia, 21, of Eastbourne Road in Liverpool, has admitted the murder of father of two Marc Mason, 48, who was stabbed repeatedly in the car park of Home Bargains in Rhyl last October.
Within half a minute he had been subjected to 22 stab wounds, two of them ruptured main arteries including the aorta, and he died very quickly.
Three others went on trial last month but the prosecution is today opening its case against Melia, who pleaded guilty.
Paul Lewis QC, prosecuting, said Melia’s fingerprints were found on the van, including a fingerprint in his own blood.
Two days after the murder police in Liverpool were conducting surveillance in Thomas Lane when they saw him and another man carrying what appeared to be a box in a bin liner.
They went to an area of a railway line but returned without the box.
Officers went to the line and found a fire, which they attempted to put out.
They could see the remains of a training shoe, a pair of tracksuit bottoms and a glove.
The prosecutor said it was probably an attempt by Melia to destroy incriminating evidence.
James Davies, 21, of Moscow Drive in Liverpool, who denied murder, was convicted.
Co-defendants Anthony Barnes, 30, of Sutcliffe Street, Liverpool, and Mark Ennis, 30, of Bedford Road, were cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter.
Nigel Power QC, for Ennis, said it had been a knee-jerk reaction which all flowed from that first phone call from Davies and Melia, who said they had come under attack while selling drugs at an area of Rhyl known as The Cob.
There was no evidence that he was number two within the drugs gang as the prosecution had suggested and the judge said she agreed his role within the gang was a street dealer. Mr Power said that his client had a history of drug dealing but no history of violence.
If he was taken along as muscle on the night then he did not flex it other than his presence, said Mr Power.
Patrick Harrington QC, defending James Davies, said that it was appreciated that his client faced a life sentence with a starting-point in the region of 25 years, which was a prolonged period for someone so young.
It meant that he would be incarcerated beyond his 46th birthday.
He had done something terrible and had to be punished, but Mr Harrington said he would ask that his age and other issues which had happened in his life could reduce the sentence.
Richard Pratt, for Melia, said that his client accepted making a call to Baines that resulted in Baines returning from Liverpool to Rhyl.
But he did not accept that an intention had been formed for the sort of violence that occurred.
Baines indicated he would come over and take him back to Merseyside.
In Rhyl there had been a chance encounter with the van in which Mr Mason was the passenger, which led to the pursuit and the attack.
In his basis of plea, Melia said that the plan had been to terrorise, which quickly escalated to serious violence.
He used his own knife and not one provided to him.
Mrs Justice Nicola Davies said that she would sentence this afternoon after she has heard mitigation on behalf of Baines.