Man charged with helping Northampton man's alleged murderers declines chance to defend himself

Lewis Carmody, of Walmer Close, Upton, is the third man on trial over the alleged shooting of the 28-year-old on the streets of Webb Drive in October last year.

But at Birmingham Crown Court today (May 21) the 21-year-old declined to give evidence and defend himself in the witness box.

It means the evidence in the murder trial has finished and the countdown until the jury is sent out to deliberate has begun.

Joshua Bains was shot dead in the chest on October 4 last year.

Two men - Kayongo Shuleko, 26, of Edmonton, London, and Jerome Smikle, 27, of St Leonard's Road, Far Cotton, Northampton - are charged with meeting Mr Bains in a Ford Focus at around 9pm to discuss a drug debt before shooting him in a struggle.

The court has heard how, in the hours after the killing, the two men were transported around by a third man - allegedly, Carmody.

The Ford Focus was also burned and destroyed while the alleged firearms - a Glock and a revolver - were found by police in the countryside near Daventry.

The three men are accused of working together to destroy evidence.

The jury is not likely to be sent out until Wednesday, May 29.