The jury in the case of five people accused of the double murders of two teenagers in South Bristol back in January have retired to consider their verdicts.
The jury will have nine verdicts to reach in the case of the five accused – whether each one is guilty of the murder of Max Dixon, 16, and Mason Rist, 15, who died after an an attack in Knowle West on Saturday, January 27.
One of the accused, a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named because of his age, has already pleaded guilty to the murder of Mason, but denies the murder of Max. A 17-year-old defendant has admitted manslaughter in causing the single fatal stab wound that killed Max, but denies his murder and the murder of Mason.
The other three defendants – Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and a 16-year-old boy who cannot be named – deny both counts of murder. Summing the case, which has been heard in a trial that has lasted a month at Bristol Crown Court, Mrs Justice May told them the ‘joint nature’ of the attack was a ‘key issue’ for the prosecution case.
“The prosecution states that the joint nature of the case is a key issue – that each one of the defendants acting together killed Max and Mason,” she said.
“Those who did not lay hands on either Max or Mason fully intended others to. Mr Tully, for the prosecution, told you that when you look at the evidence as a whole, with each of the defendants going together, they drove around Knowle West, they all had weapons, they were all working together.
“He told you that the boys were all armed backup for each other,” Mrs Justice May said, adding that the question of whether there was an intention to kill or seriously injury Max and Mason was answered by looking at the weapons. She added: “On the question of the level of harm intended, Mr Tully asks you to consider what else could have been intended with those weapons?”
The jury has heard over the past four weeks or so that Antony Snook drove his car with four teenagers on board from Hartcliffe to Knowle West late on the Saturday evening, around an hour after a house in Hartcliffe had been attacked by three masked young people, who wielded machetes and smashed all the windows with bricks.
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The prosecution told the jury the five went to Knowle West and drove around ‘sharking’ or looking for those they thought responsible. The car stopped just seconds after Max Dixon called for his best friend Mason Rist at his home in Ilminster Avenue and the pair began walking towards a takeaway on nearby Newquay Road. The pair had nothing at all to do with the attack in Hartcliffe earlier, but were chased by the four teenagers who jumped out of the car armed with long knives, a sword and a baseball bat.
The judge summed up the defence case for each of the defendants. She said that the defence counsel, Adam Vaitilingam, for Antony Snook, said that the jury can’t be sure he knew the boys in his car were armed.
“We couldn’t see the weapons from the CCTV, so he may not have done either,” she said. And looking forward from the start of the case, rather than with the benefit of hindsight, she told the jury Mr Vaitilingam told them they can’t be sure he didn’t drive that night with the intention of taking them to a safe house.
Mrs Justice May told the jury that they had heard Ignatius Hughes, counsel for Riley Tolliver, 18, tell them that he had taken a baseball bat rather than a knife, and could not have assisted or encouraged the 15-year-old defendant in the attack on Mason because the fatal stab wound had happened out of his line of sight, and when he got to Mason to attack him with the bat, the fatal would had already been inflicted.
The judge told the jury that they had heard Kate Brunner, for the 15-year-old defendant, tell them that he had admitted he had murdered Mason, but played no part in the attack on Max. “She told you that one murder does not mean two murders, and told you that after he attacked Mason, he did not then go on to attack Max,” she said.
“Mr (Christopher) Quinlan (the defence for the 17-year-old, who has admitted causing the fatal stab wound to Max, and admitted manslaughter, but denied murder) told you that you cannot be sure he intended to kill or seriously hurt Max,” the judge added.
Mrs Justice May told the jury that Anna Vigars, for the 16-year-old, told them that he didn’t attack anyone, and could have done – passing up the opportunity to attack Mason, and ran past Max.
Sending the jury out to begin their deliberations, she told them it was ‘not your job to act as detectives or to reinvestigate the case’.
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