Twin found guilty of fatal street stabbing

A teenage twin was facing life in jail today after being found guilty of murdering an aspiring designer during a street fight in Wolverhampton.

Shamari Hanchard-Kerr, aged 18, stabbed Razi-Ul Hassan three times with a "Rambo" blade and repeatedly knifed two of his relatives.

But a jury at Birmingham Crown Court failed to reach a verdict on Hanchard-Kerr's twin Kamahl, who is almost identical, yesterday. Mr Justice Simon told the court that Shamari "will be facing a life sentence".

The trial heard how Hassan, who was 24, had been involved in a separate row with each twin earlier in the day. A witness heard Shamari ask: "Do you want me to kill you?"

And Shamari, who lived with his twin in Cheltenham Avenue, Dunstall, warned Hassan that he would "come back with his brother."

Trouble flared when the siblings walked to Crosby Close in Whitmore Reans to confront Hassan, his cousin Syed Amir Imam and brother Qasim Medhi later that day, August 12 last year.

Shamari was armed with a stolen knife which had a six-and-a-half inch blade.

The victims were outside Imam's house in Crosby Close, next to Whernside Drive where Hassan lived with Medhi.

Kamahl was alleged to have thrown an object at Medhi's face before Hassan chased Shamari with a pole.

Shamari, who was 17, stabbed Hassan three times, leaving him with a punctured lung. He then stabbed Mr Imam.

Medhi was fighting with Kamahl and "unable to defend himself" when Shamari stabbed him three times, the court heard.

Prosecutors argued that Kamahl would have been "well aware of his brother's armed status", but a jury was unable to reach a verdict on murder and wounding charges, which his brother was found guilty of.

Kamahl pleaded guilty to affray. The pair were remanded in custody.