A teenager denied being ‘back-up’ for the friend accused of delivering the stab wound that killed Alex Innes.

And Michael Oluyitan, who is one of four men accused of Kidlington 25-year-old Mr Innes’ murder, told jurors that he had not slashed at the older man as they chased him up Walton Street after fatal blow was dealt.

Giving evidence in his own defence at Oxford Crown Court on Monday, Oluyitan, 19, said that he had been at Love Jericho on the night of the stabbing last November for drinks before going on to celebrate a friend’s birthday in town.

The teenager claimed to be unaware of an apparent argument unfolding on the bar’s terrace between his co-defendant, Greg ‘Gino’ Muinami, the man said to have carried out the stabbing, and Mr Innes. Instead, he told jurors that he had been looking at his phone, looking about himself, and chatting to others.

He batted away claims from prosecutor Jonathan Higgs KC that he ‘obviously’ knew about the argument but did not want to say anything that could affect his co-defendant and it was ‘every man for himself’.

Oluyitan said he had got up from where he was sitting followed Muinami down the steps of the terrace not to back him up in a fight with Mr Innes, to whom ‘Gino’ was said to have owed £100 for some trainers, but because he heard someone say they were going to the corner for a ‘smoke’.

He would not smoke cannabis on the terrace out of respect for the bar owner, ignoring Mr Higgs’ sarcastic aside that other drinkers on the balcony could be seen on CCTV puffing on ‘some pretty big cigarettes’. 

The teen said he’d turned left at the bottom of the balcony stairs rather than right, to the corner where the group eventually congregated, as he was piggybacking off the next door café’s WiFi so he could check his phone messages.

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He agreed it was a coincidence that, at around the same time, he sent a ‘voice note’ to a friend in Kidlington about how someone ‘wanted their money back’ for something he had sold and denied doing his own research about the argument between Mr Innes and Muinami.

Asked why he had bent down for a matter of seconds as he followed Mr Innes towards the corner of Walton Street and Walton Crescent, he said he was tying his shoelaces and denied he had been checking for a weapon.

He said he went down Walton Crescent in order to urinate, then put on a ski mask balaclava on his walk back to the corner in order to protect himself from the cold.

Several weeks earlier, doctor had discovered a blood clot on his lung after he was admitted to hospital having been ‘flung off’ the roof of a car on which he was posing for a picture with an unnamed rapper. Oluyitan, who as a child received treatment for cancer in his right kidney, said doctors warned him to be wary of getting cold for fear of the impact on the clot.  

A sceptical Mr Higgs asked the teen: "There's an argument going on and you know it's got serious. You know it's the sort of argument where if you're going to be helping people you want to be wearing a balaclava.”

Oluyitan denied seeing anyone strike out at Mr Innes, then said he had thrown punches of his own at the older man after seeing him approach the group with a glass in his hand.

He told the jury that he had not been carrying a knife, denied ‘slashing’ at Mr Innes as he chased him down the road, and said he had not spoken to his three co-defendants or friends about whether they had brought knives to the scene.

Earlier, Oluyitan was asked by his barrister, Andrew Selby KC: "Did you intend to cause Mr Innes really serious harm that night? Were you part of a plan with anybody to cause Mr Innes really serious harm?" 

In reply to both questions the defendant answered: "No, not at all."

Greg Muinami, 19, of Cranham Street, Michael Oluyitan, 19, of Waynflete Road, Bradley Morton, 19, of Cumberlege Close, and Keyarno Johnson-Allen, 19, of Furlong Close, all deny murder, manslaughter and possession of a bladed article.

The trial continues.

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