Greenstead murder: Pair guilty of murder said it was self defence

Phoenix Lee, 20, and Sheldon McKay, 25, told the jury they acted in self defence, with Lee claiming he and McKay had gone to Alinjavwa Siwale’s house in Affleck Road, Greenstead, “to chill”.

Lee said he kicked in the front door because Alinjavwa had shouted an insult from a first floor window.

The pair tried to claim McKay delivered the fatal stab wound to Alinjavwa after picking up a knife dropped during a scuffle.

During the trial, barristers representing the pair put questions to Alinjavwa’s brother, Suwi, who was present in the house at the time of the stabbing.

Giles Cockings QC, representing Lee, turned his focus to Alinjavwa’s music career, suggesting to Suwi his brother had rapped about “getting the chance to ambush” and “attack anyone”.

Alinjavwa Siwale, 22, was found injured at the address in Affleck Road shortly after 12.15am on Friday 11 December last year

He said Alinjavwa, who went by the stage name Mr Essex, had rapped about stabbing Lee, who went by the street name Repo, as there had been a disagreement between them.

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Lee told the jury he sold cannabis for Alinjavwa.

He said the relationship between the pair had soured after he connected Mr Siwale with a supplier of cannabis-infused sweets.

“When we got them, they were in these packets,” said Lee.

“People can buy these packets and fill them up with sweets, just normal sweets you could buy at Asda, so obviously that’s what they’d done.

“We bought around 60 packets.

“The price was about £600 and all of them turned out to be normal sweets.

“So we didn’t realise until we started distributing them to people, and that was basically where it started getting kind of rocky.

“I didn’t have the money to reimburse them for it.

“When I realised Jav started to have feelings over it was when he posted the song about me.”

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Senior Investigating Officer Julie Gowen, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: “Lee and McKay have been cowardly throughout this investigation.

“They’ve, unforgivably, deprived Alinjavwa’s family of the truth about what happened on the night of his murder.

“Throughout the investigation my team have worked tirelessly, carefully piecing together the movements of those responsible for this horrendous crime and ensuring early arrests were made.

“These dangerous individuals will now spend a significant amount of time in prison making Essex a safer place.

“Alinjavwa was killed in his own home. It was a place where he worked on his music, where he spent time with his son and his brothers, where he should have been safe from harm.

“I hope today’s outcome will bring Alinjavwa’s family some justice, and will give them some peace to allow them to move forward with their lives.”