Mircea Cozmiuc murder: Man found guilty of killing ex-housemate in Wolverhampton
A man has been found guilty of brutally murdering his former housemate by stabbing him more than 20 times in a Wolverhampton street.
Sivan Amin carried out the vicious attack on 23-year-old Mircea Gheorghe Cozmiuc in Carter Road, Whitmore Reans.
The Iraqi killer targeted his Romanian victim as he left his house for work, knifing him in the neck and then his body as he lay screaming on the ground.
A jury of seven women and five men took eight hours to find Amin guilty of murder by a 10-2 majority. It is his second conviction for murder.
The 37-year-old smirked as the verdict was read at Birmingham Crown Court today.
Judge Melbourne Inman QC said it had been a 'remarkably brutal' murder.
During Amin's trial, which lasted 13 days, the prosecution revealed how Amin had turned against Mr Cozmiuc after being 'booted out' by the Romanian and a third housemate, Andrei Bourceanu.
He subsequently became jealous of the pair's relationship and allegedly sent them homophobic abuse via photo-sharing service Instagram in the months leading up to the murder.
The jury also heard evidence of how Amin had become similarly jealous of another friend's marriage when living in Sweden and had gone on to kill him by shooting him in the head in 2008.
He will be sentenced tomorrow for Mr Cozmiuc's murder unless the judge decides a psychiatric report must be prepared.
"I still have the feeling Mircea is in the UK working hard and having fun with his friends.
"We all miss him and will never be able to say goodbye to him, never."
The murder on September 3 last year was witnessed by Micky Manning from the living room of his girlfriend's home.
"The person being stabbed was trying to protect himself and the person doing the stabbing was moving his arms to directly stab him."
A post-mortem would later reveal Mr Cozmiuc, who worked at Amazon in Rugeley, suffered 46 external injuries of which '34' were 'sharp force' injuries.
An ambulance was called but he could not be saved.
From Mr Cozmiuc's phone police officers recovered screenshots of abuse posted online and linked them back to Amin.
A forensic examination of Amin's car found Mr Cozmiuc's blood on the accelerator pedal.
And the keys to the Audi were found at Amin's home in Merridale Street West.
Officers were then able to trace the Audi moving from Amin's home to Carter Road in the minutes before the murder took place.
Amin told the jury he was asleep at the time of the stabbing after taking cocaine and downing several shots of whisky.
He admitted the Audi car seen on CCTV that morning was his but insisted he was not in it.
