Teens found guilty of killing man as he sat in car

Two teenage drug dealers have been found guilty of fatally attacking a man "in cold blood" while he was sitting in a car in east London.

Abdul Jalloh, 23, was stabbed in the neck in a car park on the Isle of Dogs on 5 August last year.

At the Old Bailey, Shamiah McKenzie, 18, was found guilty of murder while Codee Godfrey, 19, was convicted of the manslaughter having been acquitted of murder.

The court heard that after the attack, the pair changed their clothes and then mingled with the police officers who were searching for the killers.

McKenzie and Godfrey had been circling the area on their bicycles for more than an hour and were both armed, the trial heard.

They were disguised in dark clothing and their faces were covered by balaclavas, said prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC.

Within seconds of approaching Mr Jalloh, he was attacked.

"Abdul Jalloh did not stand a chance. He could offer no resistance. He was outnumbered, unarmed and vulnerable behind the wheel of his car," said Ms Carberry.

The defendants rapidly cycled away, throwing a knife and its sheath along with McKenzie's bicycle into the River Thames at Caledonia Wharf and made their way to Godfrey's home.

There, the pair packed their clothing - some of it bloodstained - into bags and changed into shorts and t-shirts, before disposing of the bags in nearby bushes.

"Such was their confidence in their changed appearance that they mingled along the Thames Path with police officers who were searching for Abdul's killers," said Ms Carberry.

The killers finally handed themselves into police three days later, the court heard.

The defendants were two young men who had "no qualms about settling a score with the blade of a knife", said Ms Carberry.

McKenzie and Godfrey were a drug-dealing team who used Godfrey's home on the Isle of Dogs as a base, the trial heard.

Inside the bags found discarded in bushes, police found £3,000 worth of cannabis bagged up and ready for sale and £2,000 in cash.

Also found in the bushes was McKenzie's phone which showed in the two-month period leading up to Mr Jalloh's death, 570 images of knives were saved on the phone, mostly taken during internet browsing. Four days before the killing, a photograph of a row of four Rambo knives and machetes in sheaths was on his phone.

A picture of a knife in a sheath with the text "someone's going to get battered today" was uploaded on to the phone two days before the killing.

Before the start of the trial, McKenzie pleaded guilty to possessing a knife and both defendants admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply.

Giving evidence in his defence, McKenzie admitted stabbing Mr Jalloh, but claimed he had been acting in self-defence. Godfrey did not give evidence.

The jury deliberated its verdicts for more than 44 hours.

Both men will be sentenced on 20 June.

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