Men 'heard laughing near scene of Kevin Shepperson murder'
Two men were heard laughing and mimicking a person begging for mercy outside the block of flats where a man had been beaten to death hours earlier, a jury heard.
Near neighbour Claire Reeves was hanging out the washing when her attention was drawn to noises coming from the other side of her garden fence but could not see those involved.
She told Wolverhampton Crown Court: “I heard really loud footsteps coming down the communal stairwell at the flats.
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"It sounded as if they were running and then there was the sound of the bottom door being opened quite violently.
“I heard two male voices, which sounded like young adults in their teens or early twenties.
"One was saying ‘no, no, please stop.’ I thought someone was in trouble and then I heard laughter.
"It sounded like a take off of a person begging someone to stop doing something.”
Less than eight hours earlier 39-year-old Kevin Shepperson had been battered and bludgeoned to death in his top floor flat at the three storey block in Bloxwich Road South, Willenhall.
His body was not found until the following afternoon.
The victim was bound hand and foot with a T-shirt used as a gag.
Wayne Kendall, who lived in the flat below the security-conscious victim, is said to have climbed from his home up the outside of the building to Mr Shepperson’s.
But the 22-year-old defendant told police the victim had invited him to come up for a chat during which he allegedly confessed to fancying the 15 or 16 year old daughter of a woman they knew.
He reportedly confessed to “seeing red” and launching a furious attack on Mr Shepperson but claimed he did not intend to kill him.
The prosecution maintain Kendall’s 21-year-old cousin Nazeem and their friend Cameron MacKenzie also took part in the fatal beating.
Police found the DNA of 21-year-old MacKenzie on the inside tongue of a trainer that had stains of blood which matched the victim’s, revealed Mr Mr Alan Kent QC, prosecuting.
His fingerprint was allegedly found on a dumbbell used in the attack.
Wayne Kendall’s DNA was on the inside of the cuffs of a boxing glove that also had blood on it that matched Mr Shepperson’s and partial traces of Nazeem Kendall’s DNA were allegedly found on the finger nails of the deceased.
Mr Kent concluded: “All three men broke into Kevin Shepperson’s flat, all three robbed him and all three killed him.”
Wayne and Nazeem Kendall both deny murder and robbery.
MacKenzie has pleaded guilty to murder and will be sentenced at the end of the trial which continues.
