Murder case trial Prosecution says ‘circumstantial’ evidence against accused is strong

A MAN accused of the murder of teenager Eddie Kinuthia in St Pauls two and a half years ago has 10 different pieces of circumstantial evidence that incriminate him, prosecutors told the jury at his trial yesterday.

- Tristan CORK

Zacharia_TalbertYoung is accused of Eddie’s murder, and also the attempted murder of another man early last year.

Prosecuting counsel Andrew Langdon began summing up the prosecution case in a trial which began almost a month ago, and has seen a wealth of circumstantial evidence which Mr Langdon said put Talbert-Young, 27, on a distinctive e-bike in the Grosvenor Triangle park in St Pauls on the night Eddie was stabbed to death.

The 19-year-old was attacked on the edge of the park and managed to make his way back to the front of a community centre, where frantic efforts to save his life failed because of the severity of the stab wounds he suffered.

He was later pronounced dead in hospital, and the attack - on July 21, 2023 - shocked the community in St Pauls and across Bristol.

As the month-long trial neared its end last week, the judge ordered the jury to find another man, Paul Hayden, 22, not guilty of Eddie’s murder.

He was a man that the prosecution had alleged was the other person on the e-bike which police had traced crossing Bristol to the scene of the stabbing. But the judge in the trial, Justice Pepperall, told the jury there was ‘not sufficient evidence’ to convict Mr Hayden of the killing, so directed them to find him not guilty.

He told the jury that the prosecution had not sufficiently linked Mr Hayden to the e-bike, which has been crucial to the case.