Luke Miller was killed with hunting knife, Boxing Day jury told

A forensic scientist told the jury Luke Miller, 23, was stabbed with a hunting style knife and that defendant Taylor Fenwick’s DNA was on a sheath believed to be the one the knife was kept in.

Leeds Crown Court heard the knife was one of two bloodstained knives found by police investigating Mr Miller’s death on Boxing Day.

Fenwick, 22, of Rosemary Court off Commercial Street, Tadcaster, denies murdering Mr Miller.

The jury heard evidence of police arriving outside his flat early on Boxing Day morning when Mr Miller was lying on the ground shortly after the alleged stabbing.

Fenwick told an officer “I have done this, it’s me” and was arrested on suspicion of murder.

He also repeatedly said: “Please help him, please help him” and police repeatedly told him paramedics were helping Mr Miller. Fenwick also said “I didn’t know what to do”.

The jury heard evidence of how police found a 19cm kitchen knife blade in the hallway of Fenwick’s flat when they checked the flat shortly after arriving at the scene and a 25cm hunting knife in a street bin the day after Mr Miller died.

Forensic scientist Michelle Walton said tests revealed Mr Miller’s blood was on both knives.

She said police sent her the jacket and top worn by Mr Miller when he died.

She said that after carrying out tests with both knives, she concluded that a cut caused by the stabbing was made by the hunting style knife. The cut was partially ragged and partially smooth.

The blade of the hunting knife had one edge which was serrated and one that was smooth and the kitchen knife had two smooth edges to its blade.

The hunting knife also had fibres that could have come from the black top that Mr Miller was wearing when he died and skin cells, the forensic scientist alleged.

She alleged that the knife used to stab Mr Miller had been used with sufficient force to distort but not break zipper teeth on Mr Miller’s jacket.

She said the blood on the kitchen knife could have come from injuries on Mr Miller’s hands.

She said she found DNA on the hunting knife’s handle from more than one person, but couldn’t say who had held it at any one time.

She said she found Fenwick’s DNA on both the kitchen knife and the hunting knife’s sheath but couldn’t say when either had been handled by Fenwick. She added it was possible for someone to handle an object without leaving their DNA.

The trial continues.