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An 18-year-old man who was stabbed repeatedly and left for dead was the victim of an ambush planned by the man accused of his attempted murder, the Royal Court heard yesterday.
And the court was told that the man alleged to have stabbed him, Alex Diogo Franca De Jesus, could not be convicted merely of grave and criminal assault because "he knew death was the almost inevitable outcome".
The claim came during the closing prosecution speech in the trial of three people accused of involvement in the near-fatal attack on 9 January last year.
Mr De Jesus (19) is charged with attempted murder, while two teenagers, who cannot be named because of their age, are charged with grave and criminal assault and affray. All three deny the charges against them.
An 18-year-old man, Jayden Howard, has already admitted attempted murder and is not involved in the trial.
The stabbing took place at Le Geyt estate in St. Saviour. During the trial Mr De Jesus admitted going to the scene armed with a knife but claimed Howard snatched the knife from him and carried out the stabbing. The two unnamed teenagers said they only watched the attack by Howard and Mr De Jesus and did not take part in it.
Pictured: The trial has been taking place at the Royal Court.
But summing up for the prosecution, Advocate Matthew Maletroit told the jurors that the stabbing was "a planned and targeted attack orchestrated by De Jesus."
And he said of the two teenagers: "They were not there as mere spectators. They were there as back-up."
Mr De Jesus owed the victim money for cannabis but had no means to paying, so Advocate Maletroit said he had a motive for murdering him.
He said: "It was for that reason that he arranged for three of his friends to come as back-up, at least one of whom was also armed with a knife.
"In any sensible interpretation, this was an ambush."
And he said: "At the moment when he pulled out his knife it is safe to infer he shared the same purpose as his friend Howard. He knew that death was an almost inevitable outcome of the events he was participating in."
While giving evidence Mr De Jesus had said he had brought a knife with him for protection. But the victim was unarmed so Advocate Maletroit argued: "That is entirely inconsistent with the way the weapons were produced and used.
"De Jesus would have you believe that he didn’t use the knife himself. He would have you believe that his friend Howard took the knife out of his hands and that Howard was responsible for inflicting all 23 stab wounds."
The advocate argued that the two teenagers were not just innocent bystanders.
He said: "They knew violence was intended. They knew their friends had knives. They were not there as mere spectators. They were there as back-up."
The advocate pointed out that even if the two teenagers were not physically involved in attacking the victim, assisting or encouraging the attack still counted as grave and criminal assault.
The jury were due to begin considering their verdicts on Thursday.
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Pictured top: Police near the scene of attack on Le Geyt estate, by Unifare stores. (Jon Guegan)
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