Brother ‘murdered by siblings’ after family feud, jury told

Birmingham Crown Court was told David Rogers, 33, stabbed Thomas Rogers, 26, in the chest, while 30-year-old Samuel Rogers, who was also armed with a knife, filmed the scene on a mobile phone.

Prosecutors allege David and Samuel Rogers and co-defendants Ryan Hurt and Macauley Welby are guilty of murder as they all intended to kill or to cause serious harm.

Their trial was told a stab wound penetrated Thomas Rogers’s heart when he was attacked while sitting in the passenger seat of a car in Mill Pool Way, near Birmingham’s Bristol Road, on August 22 last year.

Alleging that the four defendants drove to the scene a day after the windows were smashed at Samuel Rogers’ Nottinghamshire home, prosecutor Michael Burrows QC said: “The prosecution say this was murder.

“David Rogers told the police he wasn’t involved in killing his brother – that he was elsewhere.

“That was a lie and I understand he has now changed his account and accepts he had a knife and accepts that he unlawfully killed his brother but didn’t intend to kill him or cause really serious injury.

“The prosecution say the three other defendants, Samuel Rogers – another older brother – Macauley Welby and Ryan Hurt were with David Rogers at the time of the stabbing and that they helped him in the murder.

“Samuel Rogers had a knife, Macauley Welby had a hammer. Ryan Hurt was driving the car that that the four defendants were in.

“The prosecution say that they are also guilty of murder and shared the intention to kill or cause really serious injury.”

Jurors heard Samuel Rogers accepts he was armed with a knife but claims he was unaware his older brother had harmed his younger brother.

Mr Burrows said the background to the case was a family feud sparked by a “number of reasons” which led to Thomas falling out with relatives.

Still images from CCTV cameras were shown to the jury, including one of the defendants’ Ford Ka as it blocked the path of the Vauxhall Astra Thomas Rogers was sitting in.

Mr Burrows added: “We know the attack lasted less than a minute – around 30 seconds.

“CCTV shows David Rogers held a knife in his right hand.

“The prosecution say he (David) has stabbed Thomas Rogers in those early seconds. He went straight to the open window and stabbed his brother.”

Jurors were told the victim was pronounced dead in hospital shortly after being stabbed, and that David Rogers, of Nora Street, South Shields, was arrested in a wooded area in Haltwhistle, Northumberland.

Samuel Rogers, of St Michael’s Street, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, was arrested and told police he had been in Nottingham all day.

Mr Burrows said Welby, who now accepts he struck the Astra with a hammer, handed himself in at Mansfield police station on September 22.

The 22-year-old, of no fixed address, denies possessing a hammer as an offensive weapon.

Hurt, 22, of Peel Crescent, Mansfield, was also detained in the town, the jury heard, and was taken to hospital after being Tasered, where he commented: “All this for doing a lift?”

Both David and Samuel Rogers have admitted possessing a knife at the scene. All four defendants deny murder.

The trial continues.