A drug addict has told a court hearing this week of his shock at finding a man had been killed during a fight between two rival dealers at a Burnham-On-Sea home.
In a hearing at Exeter Crown Court on Tuesday (February 6th), James Hobbs described how he had broken up a fight in which Joseph Pearce was stabbed to death by Dominic Lacey and only realised he was hurt when he spotted him on the floor.
Hobbs and Lacey had just returned to his flat last July in Burnham-On-Sea’s Churchill Close after a trip to Bristol to buy a quantity of drugs when Pearce and two other men had suddenly arrived and attacked them.
Lacey killed 40-year-old Mr Pearce with a single stab wound to his heart and beat off the others with a baseball bat, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Hobbs and his girlfriend Victoria Leonard called an ambulance but as soon as a paramedic arrived, he allegedly drove Lacey away from the scene with the drugs.
He took him to a taxi office in Weston from where Lacey took a cab back to his home in Patchway, Bristol, the court heard.
Lacey, 22, of Newham Place in Patchway, has previously admitted the manslaughter of Mr Pearce. He is due to be sentenced later this week.
Hobbs, 44, of Churchill Close in Burnham-On-Sea, denies assisting an offender by driving Lacey away from the scene. He says he did not realise the police were looking for Lacey.
However, the prosecution say he helped him escape justice at a time when he knew the police were about to arrest him. The trial continues.
