Hartlepool teenager Jesse Reaney is convicted of murdering David Cuthbert in Stockton
A Hartlepool teenager has been convicted of murder alongside two accomplices.
Jesse Reaney, 18, of Lowthian Road, was found guilty by a jury of murdering David Cuthbert inside the 50 year old’s Stockton home on January 10.
Teesside Crown Court heard that Mr Cuthbert died from catastrophic blood loss after being stabbed in the chest.
Layton Lightfoot, 18, of Stockwith Close, Middlesbrough, and Charlie Wilcock, 19, of no fixed address, were also convicted by the jury on Wednesday of his murder.
All three were also found guilty of robbery following a separate incident just minutes before the stabbing in which they stole a woman’s money after punching and kicking her on the floor.
Reaney, giving evidence during the trial, accepted going to Mr Cuthbert’s address in Egglescliffe Close, Hardwick, Stockton, with Lightfoot, who was his friend, and Wilcock, who Reaney said he met for the first time that day.
He told the court that his memory of that day was “a bit of a blur” due to having taken a number of temazepam sedative tablets.
But he remembered that Mr Cuthbert first refused to let the three defendants inside his house to smoke cannabis.
He said Mr Cuthbert then became “aggressive” toward him when he asked for money on behalf of one of the other defendants.
Reaney said he then climbed through a window for a “fight” with Mr Cuthbert and the pair exchanged punches inside.
He said at one point he became aware that Wilcox was holding a knife and he saw blood on Mr Cuthbert’s leg.
Reaney said: “I just panicked and thought ‘what am I getting myself into here’, so I have left the property straightaway.”
He said he left by the window he entered through and walked down an alleyway and into the street.
The trial earlier heard how Reaney was arrested the following day at Lowthian Road.
All three will return to Teesside Crown Court on Friday, November 27, to be sentenced.