Nashon Esbrand was found dying in a neighbour’s front hall, a court heard today.
Nashon, 27, was cornered and stabbed three times in the legs in Mitchison Road – yards from his parents’ house – on August 24 last year.
A 16-year-old boy, “Defendant 3”, has already admitted Nashon’s murder. Two other young men – Dillon Zambon, 20, and Jhon Berhane, 18 – are accused of being part of the killing. They both deny murder and today was the third day of their trial.
The prosecution told the Old Bailey that Nashon suffered a cardiac arrest as soon as he got into hospital.
Pc Dan Burgess was parked up in Mitchison Road when Nashon’s dad, Desmond, alerted him that Nashon was being attacked. As the court heard on Monday, Nashon had made a phone call as he ran away from a group of males.
Pc Burgess, in his statement read out by deputy prosecutor William Jones, said he followed Desmond’s car into Essex Road, when Desmond signalled to turn round back into Mitchison Road.
“I drove along Mitchison Road and saw a lot of residents in their doorways or in the street. They pointed to the specific address.” This was the property outside of which Defendant 3 stabbed Nashon three times in the back of the legs.
Pc Burgess’s statement continued: “I could hear people saying: ‘He’s hurt bad, hurry up.’ As I got nearer a police officer shouted to get a first aid kit. I walked up the steps and saw a lot of blood. I saw Nashon lying on his back. I could hear him making noises as if he was in pain. There was a towel and vest wrapped around his thigh. He was physically agitated.”
Another emergency services worker, paramedic Ann Iverson, described how there was a “lot of blood on the floor and walls”.
Nashon fell unconscious in the back of the ambulance on the way to hospital, the court heard. He had a cardiac arrest upon arrival at hospital, where he later suffered a multi-organ failure and another cardiac arrest. He died at 2.30am the next morning.
As the court heard at the opening of the case on Monday, Nashon had feared attack from the Cally Boyz gang “because he had previously gone to the police regarding a much older incident”.
Pc Andrew Adams, who has worked in Islington’s dedicated gangs unit for nine years, told the court about Berhane’s alleged gang links. He showed the jury a music video, shot in the Bemerton Estate off Caledonian Road and uploaded in November 2016. He said it features members of the Essex Road and Cally gangs, which are said to have started associating a few years ago.
Pc Adams showed one minute of the video to the court, with Berhane said to be making an “E” sign with his hand: representing the Essex Road gang. Jack Stevens, who the prosecution claims is another suspect in Nashon’s killing but is in hiding, was also said to be in the video making a “C” sign for Cally.
Of the gangs, he said: “It’s not like the mafia. It’s more a social network. There won’t be a list. Some people come in and out for various reasons. They have been around as long as I’ve been a police officer.
“There’s become a cottage industry of people who have produced these videos. They are designed to promote the gang. Young people in general watch them and that’s where they get their knowledge of their local street gang.”
Mr Davies also read out a statement from another gangs officer, who said she saw Berhane, Stevens, Zambon and Defendant 3 together – as part of a bigger group – in Canal Wharf in June last year.
The trial continues.
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