On Friday afternoon, a 40 year old British man, who was accused of killing his childhood friend, 21 year old Ben Nesbitt, in Rojales almost 3 years ago, was found not guilty of the crime by a popular jury.
The court said that it found that there was insufficient evidence to convict him.
Following the verdict, the judge agreed to the release of the defendant.
The murder occurred in October 2020 when Nesbitt, from Merseyside, died after being stabbed in the neck.
According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the defendant shared his home with the dead man in a Villamartin urbanisation in Orihuela Costa , although the attack occurred in Rojales.
On September 30, 2020, the defendant and the victim went to a recreational gaming establishment in Ciudad Quesada after which they went to a house in Rojales, owned by another British couple whom they had met at premises.
During their time in Rojales, after consuming a large amount of alcohol and drugs, an argument began in which the defendant was alleged to have cut his partner’s throat, causing his death.
According to the defendant the owner of the house in Rojales had cocaine. They bought 2 grams for a hundred euros and after consuming it they offered him hashish in exchange for more “cocaine”, as they had run out of money.
The three were in the kitchen and the victim, according to the defendant, got angry with the owner of the house who took out a knife to cut a larger piece of hashish.
According to the defendant, both were drunk and as the pair started to fight the owner of the house stabbed the 21-year-old young man, who then ran out into the street, and after collapsing onto the pavement, quickly bled to death.
The Prosecutor’s Office however, maintained that the friend himself was the perpetrator of the fatal stabbing, alleging that, following the stabbing, he fled the house for fear of also being attacked by the owner of the house.
All through his trial, however, the accused blamed the owner of the house for his friend’s death.
The jury took less than an hour to reach their decision, finding that there was insufficient evidence to convict the accused man of the murder.
Image courtesy Diario Informacion: The-courtroom-in-Elche-on-Friday
