Jurors have cleared a former Mini Plant worker of murdering his housemate in the kitchen of their shared home.

But the 12-strong panel convicted Eugen Coman of manslaughter on grounds of diminished responsibility, which he had always admitted.

Standing in the dock with his head down and his arms clasped in front of him, 34-year-old Coman made no sound as the jury returned their verdicts after less than four hours of deliberations.

He will be sentenced on May 26, with Judge Ian Pringle KC ordering further psychiatric reports.

READ MORE FROM MURDER TRIAL

Guilty pleas

Coman pleaded guilty at the start of the trial to manslaughter and possession of various weapons found on him when he was arrested in Witney in the wake of the fatal stabbing on October 17, 2021, and also after an attack on a rent collector in Bedford in April 2020.

He also pleaded guilty to causing the rent collector, who was pistol whipped when he came to Coman’s house about unpaid rent, grievous bodily harm.

After the verdicts were read out, Judge Pringle told the defendant: “The jury have found you guilty of manslaughter, something which you have always admitted and I need to sentence you not only for that but for the other [offences].

“I can only do that when I’ve got up to date medical reports. I am going to adjourn your case initially until May 26, when hopefully those reports will be available to me.

“In the meantime you will remain in custody at Littlemore Hospital.”

'Murder'

Over the past two-and-a-half weeks, Oxford Crown Court has heard how Coman stabbed housemate Leonid Laboshin 27 times in the kitchen of their Pinnocks Way houseshare before washing the blade, placing the man’s body in a blanket taken from his victim’s bedroom, knotting it, and dragging it into the garden.

The start of the stabbing had been witnessed by a third housemate, Maryia Fando, who ran from the house and begged a neighbour for help.

She told jurors that Cowley church-goer Coman’s face had been without expression as he began the attack that left Mr Laboshin dead.

The killer fled in his BMW, driving first to a car park in Botley before a police helicopter tracked him driving to his brother’s home in Witney, where he was arrested.

Dressed in a sharp suit – just like the star of the ‘Hitman’ video games with whom he was said to have developed an obsessive interest – on his arrest he made bizarre comments, including whispering the name of Hollywood assassin John Wick and quoted from Gerard Butler film 300 about Sparta’s last stand against the Persian invasion.

His odd comments continued at the police station, when he told detectives interviewing him that he believed Mr Laboshin was part of a conspiracy to kill him and that he had acted in self-defence. “If you're an amateur, you don't challenge a pro,” he said, and compared his stabbing of his housemate to the actions of a soldier in a warzone.

A senior officer was so concerned about the suspect’s behaviour at the police station that she called in a psychiatrist. The doctor saw the defendant for less than half an hour and decided he did not need to be sent to hospital for treatment.

He was later transferred to Littlemore Hospital while on remand at HMP Bullingdon.

Two psychiatrists who gave evidence to the jury said they believed he was suffering from a schizophrenic illness, pointing to evidence of his delusional thinking.

Coman, who a year-and-a-half before the stabbing had viciously attacked a man coming to collect rent at the Bedford house share where he was then living, always admitted killing Mr Laboshin.

But he claimed that his responsibility was ‘diminished’ as a result of his mental illness.

'Competing motives'

The prosecution, led by Charles Ward-Jackson, asked the jury to convict the defendant of murder.

Opening his case last month, Mr Ward-Jackson said there were ‘two competing motives’ for the killing.

“One is what one might call good old fashioned sexual jealousy; the cause of many killings since Helen of Troy and no doubt before that. It’s a story as old as time,” he said.

Coman had been spurned by his housemate, the jury was told. He had been 'continually asking her out, being a bit of a pest', the prosecutor said.

The second possible motivation for the killing was Coman’s ‘bizarre fantasy’ around fictional character Agent 47, the protagonist of the Hitman series of video games and films.

Closing her client’s case on Tuesday this week, Tana Adkin KC said: “This case is not about sexual jealousy. It’s not about love. It had everything to do [with] and is about the delusional beliefs that Eugen Coman had.

“It is not to do with what may or may not have been developing between [a third housemate] Maryia and Leonid Laboshin.”

She added: “It is everything to do with somebody suffering a serious psychotic illness that was undiagnosed and unseen and untreated.”

Reaction

Following the trial, DI Sally Spencer of Thames Valley Police's major crime team said: “I hope that Coman’s conviction will in some way help Leonid’s family and our thoughts still very much remain with them.”