Teen stabs victim in heart and abdomen after argument over phone charger
Lemuel Lee was cleared of attempted murder but found guilty of wounding with intent
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A teenager armed with a kitchen knife stabbed a man in the heart and abdomen in an argument about a phone charger, a court has heard.
Lemuel Lee, 19, was found guilty of wounding with intent after he twice stabbed Stephen Plumb, leaving him in need of life-saving surgery.
Prosecutors said Lee and his brother Meshak Noel, 26, went to Mr Plumb’s flat in Gravesend, Kent, to supply the victim and his friend Keely Whittington with drugs.
But the jury at Canterbury Crown Court heard a fight broke out following a row over the use of a phone charger.
After a week-long trial, Lee was cleared of attempted murder but convicted of the lesser charge, while Noel was found guilty of intimidating a witness and perverting the course of justice.
Simon Taylor, prosecuting, said that both suspects fled following the altercation on 21 June, leaving Ms Whittington and another friend Tony Hoadley to call for emergency services. Mr Plumb was treated for life-threatening wounds to the heart and abdomen at a London hospital and survived, Kent Online reported.
Two blades, including the knife used to inflict the injuries and an ornamental sword, were found nearby after the suspects attempted to hide them. They had been obtained in the first place from Mr Plumb’s address, the court heard.
The suspects then caught a cab to Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford, where Noel was treated for a wound to his hand.
Police arrested the pair at their Croydon home the next day, and they both gave no comment interviews.
Lee was remanded for attempted murder and Noel was released on conditional bail for assaulting Miss Whittington.
But despite being ordered not to contact the witness, Noel “threw her around an alleyway” and broke into her home to leave a threatening letter.
Mr Taylor said: “This note was later located in her home and seized by police. It says: ‘Make sure you don’t speak, snitches get stitches, Keely’.”
Lee claimed he was acting in self-defence when Mr Plumb became injured, while Noel denied assault, perverting the course of justice and intimidating a witness.
It took the jury almost 10 hours of deliberations to acquit Lee of attempted murder and convict him by majority of wounding with intent, as well as perverting the course of justice and intimidating a witness.
Judge Simon James told the court the pair would face a “significant custodial sentence”. He told the brothers: “You have been convicted of serious criminal offences.”
They will be sentenced at the same court on 24 February.
Additional reporting by SWNS