Three people have appeared in court charged with assisting three of the teenagers who murdered Max Dixon and Mason Rist in South Bristol last January.
The three are charged with two different offences of assisting an offender relating to their actions in the aftermath of the murders in Knowle West.
Ellie Maddocks and Dominic Smith, both 25 and from Westbury-on-Trym in Bristol, and Marcus Williams, a 31-year-old from Westfield Road in Hartcliffe, are all charged with two counts of assisting an offender.
Bristol Magistrates’ Court heard it is alleged Maddocks and Smith allowed Kodi Wescott and a 16-year-old, who cannot be named because of his age, to stay at their home in Westbury-on-Trym, and then drove them to an unknown address in Weston-super-Mare, between the dates of January 27 and January 30.
Marcus Williams’ two charges relate to assisting Riley Tolliver, 18. It is alleged he drove Tolliver to an address in Weston-super-Mare before January 29 last year. The two charges relate to the fact that Tolliver has been found guilty of the murders of both Max Dixon and Mason Rist.
The three were accused that ‘without lawful authority or reasonable excuse did an act…with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of… a person who had committed the arrestable offence of murder, knowing or believing him to have committed that offence’.
The wording of the charges were read out by district judge Lynne Matthews, who told all three that their case would have to be dealt with by a judge at Bristol Crown Court. The three only spoke to confirm their names, dates of births, and addresses, and were not asked to enter a plea, but the court heard they have indicated they intend to deny the charges.
Nikki Knight and Chloe Rist, Mason’s mother and sister, watched the three in the dock at Court 7 of Bristol Magistrates’ Court intently. The three were told their cases were being adjourned to a plea and trial preparation hearing at Bristol Crown Court on February 10. All were given unconditional bail.
Five people were found guilty by a jury late last year of the double murders. Best friends Max and Mason were stabbed to death outside Mason’s home in Ilminster Avenue late in the evening of January 27.
Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, Kodi Wescott, 17, and two other teenagers who can’t be named for legal reasons, were all jailed for life, with a range of minimum terms to be served – from Snook’s 38 years before he can apply for parole, to the 15-year-old’s minimum of 15 years.
Last month, two more people were sentenced after pleading guilty to assisting an offender. Bailey Wescott, 23, Kodi’s older brother, and Jamie Ogbourne, 27, were received a five year jail sentence for their part in helping the teenagers in the aftermath of the murders.