A COVENTRY man who killed his ‘best friend’ with a single stab wound during a confrontation in the street near his victim’s home is facing a sentence of life imprisonment.
Ryan Preston (27) of Hermitage Road, Coventry, had pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to the murder of 27-year-old Daniel Kennell during the incident in July last year.
As we reported yesterday, after deliberating for 11 hours and 21 minutes over the course of two days at the end a trial which had lasted almost three weeks, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
But after a further 22 minutes, they found Preston guilty by a majority of 11-1.
Adjourning sentence overnight, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told Preston: “You have been convicted of murder. Tomorrow I will sentence you to life imprisonment, and I will decide what the minimum term will be.”
Referring to sentencing guidelines, the judge had earlier told Preston’s barrister Andrew Smith QC: “I start from this point – this is a knife taken to the scene.”
With Preston in the dock was his mother Tracey Preston (54) of the same address, who was found not guilty of assisting an offender knowing or believing him to be guilty of murder.
The jury has heard that on that Sunday there had been a fight between the two men, who had been friends since school, in Caludon Castle park.
Mr Kennell then left to walk back to his home in St Austell Road, Coventry, while Preston phoned his mother, who was out shopping at the time, asking her to bring his spare car key.
It was said that Mr Kennell, referred to as Danny, had taken his key, and when his mother arrived, Preston asked her to drive him to Danny’s home to retrieve it.
When they arrived Preston, ‘in a rage,’ went to Danny’s home and began shouting for him to come out – but got no response because he had not got back, said prosecutor John Butterfield QC.
On getting no response, he smashed a window, then threw a paving slab at the windscreen of Mr Kennell’s car.
As he was doing that, Danny arrived back in the street and was confronted by Tracey Preston who demanded her son’s car key, which she told the jury during the trial Danny handed over.
“At some point after Daniel Kennell’s interaction with her, the two young men have seen each other there on St Austell’s Road and their argument immediately started up again. It quickly came to blows,” said Mr Butterfield.
“But Ryan Preston was not prepared at this point to have any sort of fair fight, perhaps mindful of how he’d been put on the ground earlier on back in the park.
“At this stage, the defendant was indeed armed with a knife, and he lashed out with that knife at least once.
“It was a single stab wound – but that was all that Ryan Preston needed. The wound was on the left lower chest. It was deep enough to penetrate Mr Kennell’s heart, as well as to cause damage internally to both the stomach and the spleen.”
Having fatally injured Danny with an upwards stab which went up behind Danny’s ribs and into his heart, Preston returned to his mother’s car, got in and asked her to drive away, which she did, as Mr Kennell lay dying on the pavement.
It was alleged that she had done so knowing her son had killed Mr Kennell, but she insisted that she was not aware Danny had been stabbed until she was told later when she was arrested.
In his evidence Preston had claimed that as he and Danny approached each-other, he could ‘see anger’ in Danny’s face, so he took the knife from his pocket ‘out of instinct.’
But Mr Butterfield pointed out that he had not only taken it out, but had deliberately opened it.
Preston claimed he had pulled it out ‘as a scare tactic,’ and had held it in front of him, but that Danny ‘flew straight into me’ and began punching him, so he had swung back at him.
Preston said Danny then made a noise and grabbed his side, but he only realised he had been stabbed when he took some steps to the side and then fell to the ground.
He added that when he returned to the car he told his mother to drive, but said he had not told her what he had done.
Preston denied deliberately stabbing Danny – but the jury rejected his version of what had happened.
