Four accused deny murder of 22-year-old Byron in armed ‘ambush’
A jury has been told how four men on trial for murdering an East Leake man during a stabbing are not responsible for causing his death.
The court has also heard a blowby-blow account of a fight that broke out just prior to the incident in which 22-year-old Byron Griffin lost his life.
In police interviews read to the court, the four told how they played no part in Mr Griffin’s death.
Police were called to reports that Mr Griffin was found with two stab wounds in Eyre’s Garden, Ilkeston, at around 12.40pm on Sunday, July 4, last year. He was taken to the Queen’s Medical Centre, in Nottingham, where he was declared deceased shortly after 2pm.
Dylan Geary, 22, Daniel Lewsley, 32, Grant Masterson, 29 and 26-year-old Jordan Fairbrother all deny a charge of murder.
At Derby Crown Court, John Lloyd-Jones QC, prosecuting, read a
of police interviews with two of the four accused.
Geary gave prepared statements to interviewing officers.
In them, he said: “I did not assault Byron Griffin, I did not know this male and I did not know how he received the stab wound from which he died.
“I did not witness him being stabbed, I did not participate in any unlawful violence, I am not guilty of any offence in connection to Byron Griffin.”
Mr Lloyd-Jones then read out prepared statements by Lewsley. In them, he said: “I have not been involved in any murder, I have not been involved in any stabbing that took place.”
Co-prosecutor Steven Bailey read to the jury interviews conducted with Masterson. In them, he told police he was stood in the car park in Great Northern Close where the stabbing is alleged to have taken place when he saw a blue car containing Mr Griffin and four other men. He said: “I was not involved in the slightest way, shape, or form in the murder of Byron Griffin.”
Masterson said the alleged victim approached him aggressively and he felt “feared” and so reached for a baseball bat which he said was leaning next to a guttering pipe attached to the flats.
He said as he did so Mr Griffin came towards him, got him in a headlock and one of the other men prised the bat from his hand.
Masterson said: “I struck him (Mr Griffin) twice to the face, it was fight or flight, but I could not flight as he had got hold of me. I saw Dylan (Geary) getting smashed in the face with the baseball bat.”
Mr Bailey said Fairbrother was interviewed twice by police. Asked if he was the man who carried out the stabbing, that defendant replied: “No.”
Mr Lloyd-Jones said on the day of the alleged killing, Mr Griffin and four friends arrived in a blue Ford Focus at one of the car parks outside flats in Great Northern Close, where three of the defendants live. Masterson was outside, Mr Griffin got out of the car and the two began fighting, said the prosecutor, adding: “Almost immediately, the three other defendants came out of the nearby block of flats - the group were all armed. We say the fact they all appeared so quickly is that they were ready for an ambush.
“Mr Griffin became separated from his friends and at one stage was lying on the ground.
“Witnesses saw Dylan Geary hit him with a machete and witnesses also saw Jordan Fairbrother waving a knife around, go up to Byron Griffin and stab him in the chest with it.”
Mr Lloyd-Jones said the knife was later recovered by police who found it hidden in a large bag of dog food at one of the defendant’s flats.
He said on it was the DNA of both Fairbrother and Lewsley.
The trial of Geary, Lewsley and Masterson, all of Great Northern Close - and Fairbrother, of Nelson Street, Swadlincote, continues.