Murder trial witness tells jury of foot chase weeks before schoolboy was stabbed
A witness in the trial of four people accused of killing a schoolboy has told jurors he was chased in the street by one of the defendants weeks before the fatal attack.
The jury was previously told Ronan Kanda died after being stabbed in the heart near his Mount Road home in Lanesfield, around 8.30pm on June 29 last year, in a case of mistaken identity.
Giving evidence for the prosecution at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday, a friend of the 16-year-old described how he was chased on foot on May 10 by a 17-year-old defendant accused of delivering the fatal blow.
"I was taking £5 out of the cash machine to go to the chip shop. My mom was parked on the other side of the road. I looked to the right and - was there. He had a knife. It had a triangle on the end.
"I ran towards my house and he was chasing me. He called me a *****. He followed me up my road. I don't know what happened, but I turned round and he wasn't there," the witness, also aged 17, said.
The witness, who cannot be named due to his age, said over the last few years the defendant had "a problem" with him had that he did not know what the issue was about. He also said there had been a dispute with a 16-year-old defendant over money and as a result they stopped talking to each other. He said the dispute was "one-sided" and not coming from him.
He told the jury three other people had been standing nearby when he was first approached, but they did nothing. He said the incident was reported to the police and he and his mother gave statements. He said he did not see any videos relating to the incident on social media network Snapchat afterwards.
Cross-examining him, defence barrister Mr Charles Sherrard KC asked the witness how long he had been selling drugs. At which point trial judge Mr Justice Choudhury gave the youth a legal warning stating that he did not have to answer any question that may put him at risk of being prosecuted for a crime.
The witness replied: "I've never sold drugs." He also denied ever carrying knives and machetes and denied ever breaking into cars.
It was also put to the witness that after Ronan's death he deleted his Snapchat account before handing over his mobile phone to murder detectives because he did not want the officers to see the contents.
"I don't remember why I deleted it. I took a break from it," the witness replied.
The barrister retorted: "Yes you do remember."
He also put to him that up until Ronan's death he presented himself as being "very flash" and posted pictures of himself holding money on Snapchat.
"You wanted people to know who you were and to be afraid of you," the defence barrister added.
Two Walsall youths, from aged 16 and 17, Josiah Francis, 21, of Westcote Avenue, Northfield; and Joseph Whittaker, 18, of Raven Hays Road, Rubery, both in Birmingham, deny murder. Francis and Whittaker also deny possessing swords. The trial continues.
