A second man accused of murdering a father-of-one during a drink and drug fuelled attack has denied delivering a number of kicks, punches and stamps to his alleged victim.
Terry Dalton admitted occasionally selling drugs to fund his own cocaine and crack cocaine addiction but had never met Carlos Boyce before November 11 last year.
Teesside Crown Court heard how Dalton and his co-accused, Lee Hogg, turned up at the flat of Joseph Spencer to enjoy soon vodka and cocaine before trouble erupted in the Middlesbrough flat.
The two defendants both maintain that Mr Boyce was alive when they left the flat and he was fighting with Mr Spencer during a row over crack cocaine use.
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Describing the events of the evening, he said: “I just got informed off Lee that we’d been invited round to Spencer’s for a drink. I was just focusing on having some cocaine to tell you the truth.
“I saw Mr Boyce smoking crack. I like the crack myself but I didn’t have none.
“Lee was taking cocaine and vodka; Spencer had a line of coke on the back of his hand and he was smoking crack in the kitchen.”
When asked by his defence barrister Sam Green KC, asked Dalton what happened next.
He replied that Mr Spencer and Mr Boyce started fighting before Hogg and himself tried to split them up.
Dalton said the pair started fighting for a second time and this time they were armed. He added: “I saw a vodka bottle but it might have been a knife I’m not sure. I wanted to get out of there.”
He tells the jury that they left the flat after the second fight.
Under cross examination from prosecution barrister, Nick Dry, Dalton denied being responsible for any of the injuries suffered by Mr Carlos and was not even in the flat at the time they were inflicted.
Mr Dry said: “I’m going to suggest to you that you got your head together with Mr Hogg’s and invented this whole story.
“Instead, you were delivering drugs to this address, that had been ordered by Mr Spencer and you imposed yourself upon his hospitality.”
Dalton denied that had happened.
Mr Dry continued: “A short time later in the passageway you assaulted Mr Boyce. Were you kicking him to the head and throat Mr Dalton?”
Dalton replied: “No.”
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Earlier in the trial, jurors heard how Mr Boyce suffered multiple injuries to his head and face during a violent attack and was left to die.
Mr Spencer was found stumbling around the area near his Homerton Road home covered in blood after regaining consciousness several hours after being beaten unconscious with a vodka bottle after he tried to intervene in the assault on his friend, Mr Boyce.
Hogg, 38, of Lindsfarne Road, Ormesby, and 53-year-old Dalton, of Ellerbeck Way, Middlesbrough, have pleaded not guilty to murder and causing grievous bodily harm on Mr Spencer.
The trial continues.
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