Court told cancer fear led stabbing victim to act ‘recklessly’
AMAN stabbed to death in a drugs debt dispute was not involved in their possession or supply, but had been drinking heavily after finding out he might have cancer, a court has heard.
Marcus Sheppard was killed by Nicholas Sloots when he and Christopher Evans – whom Sloots owed £2,000 to £3,000 – visited the flat in Dalton Road, Port Talbot, where Sloots was staying.
Swansea Crown Court heard that Mr Sheppard’s long-term partner was pregnant with their third child and that he earned good money as a steelworker.
But in the month before his killing a suspected tumour was discovered in his neck, with initial findings pointing to cancer.
Prosecutor Elwen Evans said Mr Sheppard was frightened by his health worries and spent the day drinking on Sunday, February 26.
She said his mother felt his health predicament influenced his behaviour that day, making him “reckless” and in a position to be “totally led astray”. It had emerged after the victim’s death that the neck lump was not cancerous.
Sloots was facing trial for Mr Sheppard’s murder but yesterday in court he denied murder and admitted manslaughter, a guilty plea accepted by the judge.
The court heard that on the day before his death Mr Sheppard drank at pubs in Neath with Mr Evans, also known as Maz, with friends of Mr Evans joining them from time to time.
Miss Evans said: “The recovery of the debt that Sloots allegedly owed Maz Evans was something Maz was worried about. Marcus Sheppard does not appear to have been directly involved in that.”
There was no evidence either, she said, that Mr Sheppard was normally involved in the collection of drug debts.
While they were drinking, Mr Evans made phone calls to Sloots who, according to the prosecutor, then told a woman on WhatsApp he was going to kill Mr Evans.
“Maz somehow secured Marcus Sheppard’s company when he went to visit Mr Sloots at the address he was staying in at Port Talbot,” added Miss Evans.
She said Mr Evans and Mr Sheppard left The Arch Bar in Neath, along with a third man who pocketed two pool balls from the venue. They were then driven by taxi to the house of another man, Jason Griffiths, of Briton Ferry.
Miss Evans said Mr Griffiths then phoned Sloots at 1.10am on February 27, which was a missed call. Minutes later the same taxi took Mr Evans and Mr Sheppard, 37, of Neath, to Dalton Road.
Miss Evans said what happened next was not precisely clear, due to differences in the accounts given by those present at the altercation – Sloots, the woman he was with, her mother who lived in the flat downstairs, Mr Evans, the taxi driver, who remained in the vehicle, and the victim.
“Sloots had armed himself with a knife before he came out,” said Miss Evans. “There was a physical confrontation, during which Sloots used his knife on Marcus Sheppard. “Other items were subsequently found at the scene. One was a pool ball and a sort of spear which seems to have been used by Sloots on Maz Evans.
“It is Sloots’ account that he was hit with a pool ball in a sock.”
Miss Evans said it was “absolutely clear” from Mr Evans’ and the taxi driver’s accounts that the violence was started by Sloots with his fists and the spear-type weapon, which left Mr Evans with a groin injury.
She said Sloots suffered a broken elbow and 10 areas of injury in the incident, during which he stabbed Mr Sheppard in the chest, neck and heart.
Miss Evans said the taxi driver rushed Mr Sheppard to Neath Port Talbot Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Miss Evans said Sloots went on WhatsApp before dialling 999, telling the female friend he had contacted earlier: “I’m going to jail – I got found.”
When he then spoke to police on the phone, he said the men who had come to Dalton Road had told him to get in the waiting car.
Miss Evans said he was arrested for murder at 2.35am, to which he replied: “Murder, for what?”
Miss Evans said Sloots told officers he owed Mr Evans £2,500 for cocaine.
In the statement, she said, Sloots also claimed he had been attacked first because he had not got into the waiting car, and that he had acted “in self-defence”.
While on remand at Swansea Prison, Sloots, 34, of Sable Avenue, Port Talbot, is alleged to have told a fellow inmate that his stabbing of Mr Sheppard was a “clean kill”, thanks to Army training.
Judge Paul Thomas will hear from Sloots’ counsel, Peter Rouch, tomorrow before sentencing the defendant for manslaughter.