A 19-year-old drug dealer accused of murdering a teenager with a zombie knife has told Newport Crown Court that he acted in self-defence, saying "I'm terribly sorry. I didn't mean to kill him."
Georgie Mears, of Thornhill, Cardiff, is on trial for the death of Tristan Kerr, 17, who was fatally stabbed through the heart and lung during an incident in Abertridwr, Caerphilly county, in February. According to BBC News, Mears claims he stabbed Kerr with a 13.5cm (5.3in) zombie knife only after the teenager attacked him first.
Mears, along with Connor Palfrey, 25, from Abertridwr, Ricardo Elliot, 27, of no fixed abode, and Elexi Manny, 25, from Senghenydd, Caerphilly, all deny murder by joint enterprise. The prosecution has alleged that Palfrey supported Mears during the attack, Elliot acted as a lookout, and Manny drove the group away in her Volkswagen Polo.
The moment Kerr collapsed and died was captured on a doorbell camera of a house further down Lower Francis Street in Abertridwr.
What happened during the incident?
Mears told the court he had gone to the property to deliver two £25 bags of ketamine to Kerr when he encountered three other men already present in the living room. He described feeling immediately uneasy about the situation.
"There was a weird atmosphere, it was unsettling," he said. "I heard someone say, 'Chuck it here'."
Mears said Kerr then moved towards him in a threatening manner.
"Tristan was moving towards me. The way he was walking, it was meaningful, not how you would approach someone if you were going to speak to them."
According to Mears's account, Kerr attempted to punch him twice before pushing him against a wall. During the struggle, a knife that Kerr was carrying in his waistband became visible. Mears told the court he knew Kerr had a history of carrying weapons, having seen a Snapchat video of him chasing Palfrey with a blade and a dog.
Mears demonstrated to the court how he stabbed Kerr, claiming the knife was not his own. He said the initial stab appeared to have no immediate effect, but as he drove away with his co-defendants, he experienced an increasingly "sick feeling" about what had occurred.
Why did Mears say he used the knife?
Mears claimed he took the knife out of fear for his own safety.
"I just stabbed him. If I didn't stab him he would have stabbed me. I feared for my safety. I knew he had a history of carrying knives and being a violent person. I genuinely thought he was about to attack me."
The court heard that Mears had multiple driving offence convictions on his record. When questioned by his defence counsel Chris Rees KC, Mears explained that he simply wanted to escape the property and panicked when he discovered the front room door handle was missing.
"I was scared, I just wanted to get out of the room. There was no handle on the door. The only way was to go out through all these men."
What does the prosecution allege?
The prosecution case has presented evidence suggesting coordinated involvement by all four defendants. According to reporting on the trial, the prosecution alleged that Palfrey and Mears burst into the flat, with each defendant playing a specific role in the attack. A witness told the court that Palfrey and Kerr had experienced a disagreement weeks before the killing, though they had later resolved it.
The prosecution has also presented evidence of text messages between Palfrey and Elliot discussing drug dealing and collecting drug debts, though the alleged motive for the attack itself remained unclear at the time of the trial.
What happens next in the trial?
The prosecution case has concluded, with the defence cases expected to begin on Monday, 26 October, as the trial continued. All four defendants maintain their not guilty pleas to the murder charge under joint enterprise, and the trial is ongoing as each defendant presents their own account of events.
