Last words trap killer
A possessive boyfriend has been jailed for life for murdering his ex-girlfriend – who condemned him with her dying breath.
Devon Cohen must serve at least 14 years for stabbing Ann-Marie Kamilla Parkes through the heart in the Wolverhampton restaurant where they both worked.
The 26-year-old waitress's last words as she stumbled from the kitchen of The Caribbean Hut were: "Devon stabbed me, Devon stabbed me".
A jury at Wolverhampton Crown Court took two hours to convict kitchen hand Cohen of murder yesterday.
They heard how 43-year-old Cohen, of Riches Street, Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, was a possessive and controlling boyfriend who had become "besotted" with Ann-Marie.
Judge John Wait said: "Ann-Marie Kamilla Parkes was a happy young woman known for her smile.
"She was loved by many but you took the life of that girl – you took her from those that loved her.
"I accept that you were among those who loved her but you loved her too much. You wanted her to live her life in your way, you tried to control her and you couldn't accept that she was free to make up her own mind."
The attack at the restaurant in Broad Street on October 18 last year was described as an "eruption of emotion" in court.
Cohen, who was in tears throughout yesterday's hearing, stabbed Ann-Marie with a knife he had just used to de-scale fish.
Afterwards, he dumped the blade in a bin before running home and changing his shirt and trying to clean his shoes. He later handed himself in to Bilston Street police station.
Cohen previously pleaded not guilty to murder but admitted manslaughter.
He claimed it was an accident and Ann-Marie had caught herself on the 11cm blade as she walked past him in the small kitchen.
* More background to the case in Tuesday's Express & Star.
