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Islington Tribune - by DAVID ST GEORGE
Published: 22 June 2007

Old Bailey told how pair argued in street before fatal knife attack

AN Islington street was turned into a bloody battleground when two small-time drugs dealers fell out, a jury heard yesterday (Thursday).
A sales assistant was fatally knifed through the heart as violence exploded, the Old Bailey was told.
Fitness fan Valston Murraine, 20, clutched his chest and walked a few yards before collapsing.
And despite efforts to revive him at the scene he was pronounced dead soon afterwards at hospital, said prosecutor Joanna Korner QC.
Shane Samuel Riley, a 21-year-old, of King Square, Finsbury, denies murder on 22 Sept last year.
Jurors were told that some eyewitnesses will be giving their evidence over video links with their identities protected.
“The Crown’s case is that about 8pm that Friday evening these two acquaintances were involved in an argument which turned into a fight. Riley produced a knife and struck Murraine four times,” said Miss Korner
“Three were slash wounds, but the fourth entered his heart.”
Murraine had been at a gym in the afternoon and got a lift to the scene of his death, near Elmsfield House in Grosvenor Avenue, Highbury.
He lived on the Six Acres Estate in Finsbury Park with his family and was a member of a street gang called the “Lordship Boys”.
Mr Riley, who drove a black Ford Fiesta and went by the street name Styles was, like the victim, involved in “low-level sales of drugs”, Miss Korner told the court.
Neighbours heard a commotion and people screaming. When they looked from their windows they saw a large group of young people surrounding two males who were struggling.
Seconds later Murraine collapsed.
The trial continues next week.

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