A Milton Keynes man was murdered in a revenge attack by a rival drug dealer, a jury heard on Wednesday, October 5, 2022.
Joseph Tayaye, aged 21, was fatally stabbed outside his home in The Hide, Netherfield just before midnight on Monday, March 28, this year.
Prosecutor Benjamin Aina KC told Luton Crown Court that the killing was carried out by Oluwatomiwa Tomi Olatuyi.
He said: “Both men – the deceased and the defendant – were drug dealers.
“They had a long-standing dispute. They did not like each other.
“The prosecution’s case is that the killing of Mr Tayaye was a revenge attack.”
He told the jury of six men and six women that two days before the stabbing Joseph Tayaye and Oluwatomiwa Olatuyi had a fight.
“During the fight Mr Tayaye managed to obtain the defendant’s mobile phone and posted images of the phone on social media. He was taunting the defendant about the fact that he had managed to obtain his mobile phone,” said the prosecutor.
After that, it was alleged Olatuyi went to the victim’s home on a scooter and stabbed him outside the house. He was taken to hospital where he died the next day, Tuesday, March 29.
Olatuy, of Stanton Avenue, Milton Keynes, denies five charges: affray and having a knife in Farthing Grove, Netherfield on March 26, 2022; the murder of Joseph Tayaye on March 29 (the day he died), having a knife on March 28, 2022 and perverting the course of justice between March 28 and April 2, 2022.
The prosecutor said the defendant said he was acting in self-defence during the fight two days before the stabbing.
He said that Olatuyi’s case is that he was not the man who stabbed Joseph Tayaye. After the stabbing it is alleged the defendant did acts tending or intended to pervert the course of justice by disposing of the clothing he was wearing, by getting rid of the knife and the scooter he used to travel to the scene.
Mr Aina said the victim had two nicknames: KP and Claudz. The defendant was also know as Tomi and had the nicknames TTG and Carlos.
The jury was told they would hear from witnesses who would talk of a feud between the two men that spanned years.
Judge David Farrell QC told the jury that the trial is expected to last between two and three weeks.
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