A STABBING victim was heard to scream ‘help, help, help’ after he was left for dead in an Oxford street drenched in blood, an eyewitness has said.
As the trial into the alleged murder of 22-year-old Luciano Dos Santos Almeida continued at Oxford Crown Court today, more eyewitnesses recounted what they saw on the night of the killing.
Michael Yemane, 20, of South Bridge Row, Oxford, Welid Solomon, 25, of Field Avenue, Oxford, Sasan Mohammed Khalid, 19, of no fixed abode, and Safeen Abdullah Karimi, 28, of Hode Garth, Thame, all deny one count of murder.
Solomon denies a further count of 'doing acts tending to pervert the course of justice' by setting fire to a car allegedly used in the attack.
Read again: The opening of the case last week
Prosecutors claim Mr Almeida was run over before being repeatedly stabbed at Southfield Road in East Oxford at about 11.30pm on February 27 this year.
Today, one of the first people to go the aid of Mr Almeida – James Charman – told jurors what he saw of the alleged violence.
He said he was first alerted to something going on outside his then-home by the sound of ‘lots of revving’ of a car, and when he looked out his window he saw figures ‘running around the car.’
He said: “I could see people on the other side of the road and I could hear them in [a] ditch running around it.
“I heard noises, painful noises.”
Mr Charman said he thought he could see two or three people and he described the incident as ‘an attack.’
He went on: “[I heard] quite horrible shouts of pain which I now know obviously from going out and seeing the body, it was stabbing noises, the noises it would make if you were stabbed.
“It’s a horrible noise, shouts of pain which I guess was the stabbing.”
Read again: The trial continues as the first eyewitnesses give their accounts on Tuesday
He said that moments later he tried to film the incident on his mobile phone and that a car later ‘shot down’ Warneford Road and away from the scene.
Mr Charman said he then heard a man – later revealed to be Mr Almeida – scream ‘help’ three times and he went outside to near Sinnet Court to check if he was alright.
He said he found him propped up against a box and added: “I don’t even know how he called out ‘help, help, help’ because he was so unresponsive at that point.
“There was so much blood, I didn’t want to move him in case he had other wounds, I didn’t want to move him there was so much blood.”
While on the phone to emergency services, the court heard, police then arrived on the scene and despite efforts to save him Mr Almeida later died in hospital.
Another witness said he could hear a ‘terrified scream’ during the incident which he called a ‘shriek.’
All four deny murder and Solomon denies perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
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