Teen from Oxford jailed for life for murder of electrician

Greg ‘Gino’ Muinami, now 19 but 18 when he murdered Alex Innes in Walton Street last November, will be in his 40s before he is eligible for release on parole.

Jailing him for life at Oxford Crown Court on Friday (September 8) and ordering he serve a minimum tariff of 24 years and 71 days, Judge Ian Pringle KC described the teenager’s attack on November 13 as ‘cowardly’.

“The background to what took place on that fateful night is that at some time, perhaps a few weeks before that night, Alex Innes, sold to you a pair of trainers,” the Recorder of Oxford told Muinami, who had a smile playing about his lips as he sat behind the glass of the dock.

“There arose a dispute as to whether you had paid the full price for some trainers or whether you still owed him £100.

“It is truly staggering to think that a young man lost his life because of a dispute over such a sum of money.”

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In a moving set of statements read by prosecution barrister Ben Temple, Mr Innes’ father Andrew and his two uncles detailed the terrible impact of the senseless murder.

Andrew Innes said: “From the moment I received that phone call to say that Alex had been stabbed, I have been on a rollercoaster of emotion and have felt I have to protect my family.

“No parent should have to formally identify their son’s body. No one should have to go through answering so many questions about him so soon after his death. I have had to be Alex’s voice.”

When he met the prosecution barrister, he said, ‘I asked him for an eye for an eye’. “I would expect a minimum sentence without parole to be 26 years and that, of course, is the duration of Alex’s life,” he added.

Born in 1996, Kidlington man Alex Innes was 25-years-old and almost 26 when he was  stabbed once through the heart.

He was attacked after seeing Muinami at the Love Jericho cocktail bar in Walton Street.

It was supposed to have been a pleasant evening, with Mr Innes planning to go on to another bar in Park End Street with a friend.

His stabber was known to him and, prosecutors said, owed him £100 for a pair of trainers Mr Innes sold the teenager.

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More than a fortnight earlier, a stream of Snapchat messages between them revealed the older man chasing the unpaid money and accusing Muinami of ‘ghosting’ him.

In reply, the teenager sent a video of himself apparently munching on a wad of cash, telling Mr Innes to ‘stay hungry’.

Having been stabbed in the chest, the victim was chased up Walton Street towards the Oxford University Press building.

Greg Muinami (left) was found guilty of murder. Michael Oluyitan, Bradley Morton and Keyarno Johnson- Allen, pictured left to right on their arrests, were found not guilty by a jury (Image: Thames Valley Police)

He collapsed on the pavement and, despite the best efforts of passers-by and emergency crews, died at the scene.

Muinami left the scene and, half an hour later, could be seen on CCTV outside nightclubs in Park End Street.

The murder weapon was never found.

Paying tribute to their nephew, uncles Lee Hynes and Robert Innes said the young man was kind, thoughtful, vibrant and full of energy.

Robert Innes called for an end to a culture of young men taking knives onto the streets.

“It is real life. It is not a cheap movie or a game. The next victim may be your loved one,” he said.

Defence brief David Hislop KC’s client was out of the dock, having left for what appeared to have been a short comfort break, said it was ‘two lives wasted over the price of a pair of trainers’.

“To describe it as a tragedy is almost an understatement,” he added.

Knives seized from Greg Muinami's home Picture: Thames Valley Police (Image: Thames Valley Police)

Following the hearing, DCI Jon Capps of Thames Valley Police’s Major Crime Unit said: “This was an utterly horrific and abhorrent attack by Muinami, who had pre-armed himself with a knife that night

“I did not know Alex, but during the course of our investigation on the back of these tragic and needless circumstances, I learned a lot about who he was and how much he meant to his family and friends.

“Alex went out that Saturday evening for what should have an enjoyable and social night out. He had every right to feel safe. He was happy; friends say that Alex was always happy.”

Love Jericho cocktail bar, where the parties met on the night of November 12 (Image: Oxford Mail)

Mr Oluyitan, one of the three co-defendants who was acquitted of murder, manslaughter and possession of a bladed article, attended today’s sentencing hearing.

Speaking to the Oxford Mail outside court, Mr Oluyitan, 20, claimed he had been ‘wrongly accused’.

“It played on my mental health, I can’t even go out in public anymore, due to the fact I get harassed by the police.”

He said: “I have moments when I don’t feel normal anymore, since they wrongfully remanded me for a murder I wasn’t involved in.”

The Rest In Paradise tribute on a wall in Walton Street (Image: Oxford Mail)