Brutal Wakefield knife attacker snapped blade in man's arm over hat row
A drug dealer repeatedly stabbed a man with such ferocity that a chunk of the blade had to be removed later from the victim’s arm.
Marcus Taonozey and his pal chased the victim and jabbed and kicked him when he slipped over.
He was left needing emergency surgery in which a fragment of the blade was found lodged in the bone.
It happened after the victim refused to give the man his hat, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Taonozey admitted a charge of Section 20 GBH and possession of a bladed article. He also pleaded guilty to dealing in heroin and cocaine.
Prosecuting the case, Ella Embleton said police attended his house on Temple Court in Wakefield on the afternoon November 18, 2023.
Armed with a warrant, they forced entry after watching Taonozey enter the property and then fail to answer the door.
They found a mobile phone with six SIM cards, and after taking him to the police station he was found to have 60 wraps of heroin and cocaine in his underwear.
Forensic analysis of the phone found it to contain messages indicative of drug dealing.
Then on July 10 last year, at around 5am, the stabbing victim was with a friend when they went to a flat in Hemsworth where Taonozey was present.
After a conversation about the man’s cap, he told them he would not give them it, so Taonozey pulled out a knife.
The victim was pursued as he ran from the flat but then slipped and fell, allowing 20-year-old Taonozey and the other man to attack him on the ground on Oakwood Drive.
They only stopped when members of the public intervened. The man was taken to Pinderfields and had wounds to his shoulder, arm, his chest and back.
Taonozey handed himself into the police four days later, but refused to answer questions.
He has three previous convictions for 10 offences, including robberies from 2018.
Mitigating, Mollie Briggs said Taonozey had been on remand for around six months. She said he lacked maturity.
She said of the stabbing: “He is remorseful for his offending and said he would like to apologise to the victim and does not plan on doing anything like this again.”
An attempt to claim that the victim had tried to attack him first and he was acting in self defence was rejected outright by Judge Richard Mansell KC, who said there was “not a shred of evidence”.
He told Taonozey: “You are very fortunate you did not kill him or inflict more serious injury than you did, and more fortunate you were not convicted of attempted murder or wounding with intent.”
He jailed him for 54 months in total - 24 months for the drug offences, and 30 months for the knife attack.