An expert on “street slang” has told a murder trial that when one of the men accused of killing a Nottingham father said he “smoked him,” it meant “to kill him”. But former gang member Francis Osei-Appiah also admitted the same phrase can be translated to mean “used violence against or attacked”.
James Horne KC, defending Morgan-Adlam, challenged the expert’s interpretation. He said: “The only person who would know for sure what was meant was the person who sent it. Would you agree with that?” Mr Horne said: “There are many other street slang words that mean stabbing, such as shanked, poked, cut, splashed, dipped and cheffed. None of those words feature in those messages.”The jury of eight men and four women has already been told how Mr Connor, a father-of-two died after being stabbed at Crown Island, the prosecution says by Morgan-Adlam, of Southwold Drive, and Dockeray-Barnett, of Marchwood Close.
Mr Lloyd-Jones said an ambulance crew arrived within eight minutes of a 999 call being made but Mr Connor was pronounced dead at 8.49pm the same evening. The prosecutor said Morgan-Adlam handed himself in to the police on Boxing Day and was arrested. He said in his police interview he said his cousin called him to say he had been "rushed" and had suffered a black eye.