Alleged killers in court 15 years after attack on disabled Staffordshire man
Three men have appeared in court accused of killing a disabled man who died 13 years after being stabbed and assaulted in his car in Hednesford.
Craig Robins was 27 when he was attacked in 2006 and died in 2019.
James Milligan, 41, Bernie Smith, 30, and Kyle Smith, 32, are accused of manslaughter and all appeared on bail for the hearing at Stafford Crown Court today.
A fourth man, 36-year-old Gavin Brown, of HMP Lancaster Farm, has been charged with murder in connection with Mr Robins' death.
Brown was due to appear at the same hearing but had not been delivered by prison authorities despite an order for his production being sent out, Judge Kristina Montgomery QC told the other parties in court.
All four men had been due to enter pleas at the hearing but proceedings were adjourned to allow further time for pre-trial reports to be completed.
Instead, Judge Montgomery set a new date for pleas to be entered at a hearing back at the same court on June 16.
A provisional three-week trial date, starting on September 13, had previously been set.
Milligan, of Canford Place, Cannock, and Bernie Smith and Kyle Smith, who live at separate addresses in Rowley Close, Hednesford, were conditionally bailed to appear back at court at the next hearing.
Mr Robins was already paralysed from a car crash before the attack. He was left needing round-the-clock care.
