Yahoo News Killers executed boy, 16, after stabbing him in spine with 'Zombie-knife'
Killers who executed a schoolboy with a 'Zombie-style' blade moments after ambushing him in a 'crack den' have been locked up for more than 50 years for the 'ferocious' murder. 'Instigator' Mpho Obi and his 'willing lieutenant' Omari Lauder stabbed 16-year-old Terrell Marshall-Williams from behind with a 'vicious' machete they had hidden under a coat.
One of the eight 'deep' wounds severed the youth's spinal cord and would have 'paralysed' his lower limbs. The thugs fled the scene of the horror stabbing within minutes of arriving, leaving young Terrell for dead in the drugs lair.
Obi - a 'significant' class A drug dealer in Wolverhampton - even sent a message to a friend almost 'immediately after the murder, 'boasting' of his kill. The pair denied murder but were convicted by jurors on a majority of 11-1 in May following a three-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
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They were also unanimously convicted of possession of an offensive weapon. Obi admitted possessing with intent to supply heroin and cannabis ahead of the trial, while Lauder was acquitted of the same charges.
Today (Monday, July 1), Obi, 23, of Strathfield Walk, Wolverhampton, was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 28 years. Lauder, 24, of Wolverhampton Street, Darlaston, was jailed for life, with a minimum term of 24 years.
Sentencing, Judge Michael Chambers KC said: "Acting together, you both armed yourselves with a vicious Zombie-style machete knife and carried out a brutal murder of a 16-year-old youth for reasons related to a dispute concerning the supply of drugs. You jointly subjected him to eight stab wounds, using severe force.
"Five of the wounds were to his back and rear. I'm satisfied that each of you had an intention to kill.
"The narrow timings of your arrival at the location of the killing and your departure suggest that this was akin to an execution. Immediately afterward, you Obi sense a text to a friend, in effect, boasting about having stabbed someone."
The court heard how the killers took a taxi from Wolverhampton city centre to a flat in Warnford Walk, Merry Hill, on September 18 last year. They had armed themselves with the 'lethal' knife, with Lauder hiding it under a coat.
Terrell was with a friend at the flat, which had been cuckooed - a term used when drug dealers occupy a vulnerable person's home as their drug-dealing base. Judge Chambers said: "The clear inference is that you knew Terrell was going to be there and intended to kill him."
Obi ordered a second taxi before the killers arrived at the flat, which he hired to pick the pair from an address nearby and take them to Birmingham. Footage from CCTV captured the taxi arriving at the drugs den at 4.23pm.
At 4.28pm, a 999 call had been made from inside the flat. Judge Chambers said: "The reality is that you both went into the flat with the knife, carried out the killing, and left."
The pair inflicted eight 'deep' stab wounds to Terrell's chest and his back, with the blade wielded with such force that it severed a rib and his spinal cord. Lauder was also hurt during the killing, with Terrell slashing his killer as he desperately tried to defend himself.
Judge Chambers added: "The attack did not go to plan because it can be inferred that Terrell tried to defend himself with a knife of his own, stabbing you Lauder to the thigh. Any plans to go to Birmingham ended there."
Paramedics rushed to the scene and administered CPR but Terrell could not be saved. After fleeing the flat, Obi dumped the blood-stained machete, clothing and drugs in a nearby park.
The items were discovered by police, alongside 156 deals of crack cocaine and 31 deals of heroin. The killers fled in a taxi, with injured Lauder getting dropped off at his home.
Police raided the property and uncovered a trail of blood leading to the front door, with signs spotted that he had tried to self-administer first aid. He was arrested at Walsall Manor Hospital two days later where he was treated for a thigh wound which had caused blood loss.
Lauder had told medics he had been chased by a dog and had pierced himself on a fence. Obi was arrested on September 18, West Midlands Police previously said.
Investigations revealed that the killers had tried to get hold of a firearm the day before the murder. During the trial, jurors were told that Terrell had been 'moving in a dangerous and unpleasant world', with police detaining him twice before his death.
He was arrested twice on suspicion of possession of drugs and bladed weapons. The victim - who was slightly built, 5ft 9ins and weighed 8st 3lbs - had links to a drugs gang in the area, the court heard.
Prosecutor Tim Hannam KC previously said: "These defendants had deliberately gone to that flat armed with a large and very lethal knife. Whether they went there to buy, deal or steal drugs, or for some other reason, only they can say.
"What can be said with certainty is that Terrell was brutally slain in a ferocious attack using the knife that they brought with them. He was killed immediately on their arrival."
Mr Hannam added: "Young people from the area were in the habit of using that flat to hang out in and to take drugs. Obi in his police interview described it as a crack den."
