Trust Gangata murder trial: Leeds jury sent out to consider verdict as four men deny Armley murder

Four men are accused of killing the Leeds teenager, who was stabbed to death at a house party in Armley on March 19. The 17-year-old – known to friends as TJ – was stabbed through the lung, his heart and his liver and died less than an hour later.

Karl Belinga, Paul Mbwasse and Karlson Ogie, all 19, and 20-year old Brandon Paradzai deny his murder.

Leeds Crown Court previously heard that Mr Gangata was killed in a case of mistaken identity. Prosecutors say four masked raiders burst into the house in Salisbury Grove looking for revenge for an earlier incident, before wrongly singling out Mr Gangata in the kitchen and stabbing him 15 times before fleeing.

Three of the defendants separately handed themselves into the police in the hours that followed Mr Gangata’s death, with the fourth arrested at his home address the day after.

Each of the defendants told the jury they were not involved in the stabbing or violence and did not intend anyone to suffer serious harm - blaming each other for the attack.

Belinga, of no fixed address, accuses Mbwasse and Ogie of stabbing Mr Tangata. Mbwasse, also of no fixed address, blamed Belinga and Ogie, while Ogie, of Bierley House Avenue in Bradford blamed Belinga and Mbwasse.

Paradzai, of Coleshill Way in Bradford, told the court that his three co-defendants were responsible for entering the kitchen and stabbing Mr Gangata.

Judge Geoffrey Marson KC sent the jury out at about 10.30am today (Wednesday) to begin deliberating. The verdicts available to the jury are guilty of murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty.