TWO teenagers have been convicted of killing law student Hussain Chaudhry over a jacket in east London.
Chaudhry, 18, was fatally stabbed in the neck after he tried to stop the two men from robbing him. He died in the street outside his family home in Walthamstow while in his mother’s arms in March this year.
Wood Green Crown Court last week convicted Marvin Ward and Alexis Morris, both aged 18, of manslaughter, robbery and two counts of wounding. Morris was also convicted of having an offensive weapon.
The court heard that Chaudhry, a first-year student at the School of Oriental and African Studies University, had a part-time business selling trendy jackets and coats which he advertised on social media.
Ward and Morris contacted him and arranged to meet up to buy a jacket.
Chaudhry and his two friends met Ward and Morris close to his home. As Chaudhry had only brought along a Moose Knuckles style jacket to sell, Ward tried it on and Morris asked if he could try on a different size. Chaudhry and the group made the short walk to his home where he kept the jackets.
Once inside the house, Ward and Morris dropped their pretence and took out their weapons, including a machete.
They threatened Chaudhry and his friends as they began looking for coats to steal.
The commotion inside the house meant that Chaudhry’s older brothers were alerted and managed to overpower Morris in a bedroom.
Ward ran out of the house with a jacket and got into the back of an Uber the pair had ordered.
But the driver refused to drive off.
Chaudhry and one of his brothers followed him and managed to smash the window of the car to unlock it to recover the jacket. Their mother also came out of the house.
Ward got out of the car, swinging a knife and slashed Chaudhry’s mother’s hand. His brother also received a cut to his hand when he tried to grab a hold of the blade. Ward then plunged the knife into Chaudhry’s neck and ran off, stopping to pick up the jacket he had stolen.
Chaudhry died at the scene but Morris managed to escape out of a window in the house.
The attack was captured on the camera of a bus and the dashcam of a stationary car that was stuck in traffic at that time.
Ward was tracked down and arrested two days later. Morris had sought help from Anthony Nguyen, 18, to hide and was arrested with him in Luton.
Nguyen has been convicted of assisting the offender.
CPS Prosecutor Sarah Dale said Morris also dropped his phone inside the house which police found contained a number of incriminating videos of himself and others ‘playing’ with the machete he had brought along.
