Prosecutors were accused of taking ‘footsteps of folly’ and selecting evidence based on an incorrect case theory – as barristers for the Jericho murder accused got their first chance to address the jury.

Counsel for the man the Crown says dealt the single, fatal stab wound, said Greg Muinami became an ‘easy target’ when early-on in the investigation evidence came to light of a dispute with victim Alex Innes supposedly over a debt for trainers.

David Hislop KC told jurors at Oxford Crown Court yesterday (June 14): "Greg Muinami may have had a motive to be very annoyed with Alex, as did Alex with him. That motive does not make either a killer.”

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The barrister for Michael Oluyitan, accused of ‘backing up’ his friend ‘Gino’ Muinami outside the Walton Street cocktail bar where Mr Innes was stabbed last November, began his speech by echoing the slang that was used in a bad-tempered Snapchat exchange between Muinami and Mr Innes a week-and-a-half before the alleged murder.

“A ‘bill’. £100. That, it seems, was the price of Mr Innes' life,” Andrew Selby KC said on behalf of Oluyitan.

“It's chilling, isn't it? That is what is contended by the prosecution as to why Mr Innes lost his life.

“Whether anyone was or was not owed for a pair of shoes, it was not owed by Michael Oluyitan.

"Michael Oluyitan had absolutely no issues at all with Alex Innes and Alex Innes had no issues at all with him."

Four teenagers – all now 19-years-old – deny murder, manslaughter and possession of a blade. Barristers for the third and fourth defendants, Bradley Morton and Keynaro Johnson-Allen, will address the jury today.

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Prosecutor Jonathan Higgs KC spent more than three-and-a-half hours on his feet over two days taking the jury in detail through the CCTV and other evidence that he said pointed to the four men’s guilt.

Concluding his address yesterday, he told jurors: "Those four all knew what was going on. They all played their different parts and, we say, they are guilty.”

Alleged killer Muinami is the only one out of the four defendants to have neither given an account to the police when he was interviewed last November nor given an account to the jury from the witness box.

His silence in interview and in the trial was his right, jurors were reminded. Mr Hislop KC, defending, also reminded the jury that his client had told a police officer who visited him that he was ‘innocent’.

"Whilst it's right to say that he has not given evidence, it's not right to say that there is no evidence to support his case, because of course there is,” the barrister said on Wednesday afternoon.

And he said his client was supported by the testimony of two of the ‘most important’ witnesses in the case.

He noted that Mr Innes’ friend, Remel Yearwood, said there was a ‘bit of banter’ between Muinami and Alex but ‘no aggression’ – and that Muinami was not the person he heard getting ‘more than a bit annoyed’ with Mr Innes.

And he cited the testimony of Remel’s sister, Chantelle, whose ‘analysis of who was in actual arm’s length’ of Mr Innes at the time of the stabbing was ‘seriously at odds’ with the prosecution’s CCTV evidence.

Turning to the ‘trainer debt’ explanation put forward by the prosecution, Mr Hislop said: "What the motive has done in this case is make Greg Muninami an easy target and this from the outset became the case theory. That case theory has driven the interpretation of the evidence put before you.

"It's driven a dragging of your focus towards the CCTV and away from two of the most important witnesses in the case.”

He characterised the Crown as taking ‘footsteps of folly’ in building a case based on an incorrect ‘police case theory’.

Both Mr Hislop and Mr Selby, for Muinami and Oluyitan respectively, accused the prosecution of speculating.

The former pointed to the suggestion that ‘Gino’ was fondling a blade when he was seen on CCTV sitting on the terrace at Love Jericho, speaking to Alex Innes, all the while with his hand in his pocket.

"There is not one witness in this case who's said he had a knife in his pocket. There's only one person - one person - in this courtroom who's said that he had a knife in his pocket.” That was the prosecutor, Mr Hislop said.

Mr Selby accused the Crown of being ‘fanciful in the extreme’, trying to place knives into the hands of Oluyitan and the two remaining co-defendants as they chased Mr Innes up Walton Street.

“You know that Michael didn’t have a knife quite simply because there is no evidence at all that he did,” the barrister said. The evidence, he told jurors, showed ‘clear as day’ that his client was not guilty.

Greg Muinami, 19, of Cranham Street, Michael Oluyitan, 19, of Waynflete Road, Bradley Morton, 19, of Cumberlege Close, and Keyarno Johnson-Allen, 19, of Furlong Close, all deny murder, manslaughter and possession of a bladed article.

The trial continues.