A teenager knifed a 13-year-old boy to death, then caught a bus to a friend's home to play video games, jurors heard today.

Jahziah Coke was found collapsed in the hallway of the house with three stab wounds – one of which penetrated six inches into his chest and almost severed a rib – a court was told. Paramedics were unable to save him.

Prosecutor Kevin Hegarty KC told how Jahziah was found alone in the property at the foot of the stairs last August after a 999 call was made.

'At the time the call was made Jahziah, a 13-year-old, was bleeding heavily', the prosecutor said.

'He had three wounds to his torso. One on his chest and two on his stomach or tummy.

'And those wounds had been caused by one or more sharp knives. The wound to his chest was approximately 15cm deep - six inches give or take.'

The prosecutor said 'severe force' was used to inflict that chest wound. 'It almost completely cut through the sixth rib on his right side', he added.

Mr Hegarty said that as well as the deep wound to Jahziah's chest, the boy also suffered two stomach wounds in the attack at an address in Oldbury, West Midlands.

He told jurors: 'As you will hear in the evidence from the pathologist, one is where the knife has gone in and the other is where the point of the knife has come out, if you can imagine such a thing.'

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard the alleged killer, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, left the scene by scaling garden fences before emerging onto a road where he caught the first of two buses to the home of a friend.

Mr Hegarty said the friend was at the address with her mother and the defendant 'went into (the friend's) room where they 'hung out for three hours, playing on a PlayStation and chatting'.

The court heard news eventually filtered through to the pair via Snapchat that Jahziah was dead and his alleged killer went on to give the girl and her mother 'an account of what he said happened that afternoon.'

Mr Hegarty said: 'The boy claimed there had been a row and a struggle and that Jahziah had tried to stab him.'

The boy, who is on trial accused of murder and an alternative count of manslaughter, claimed to the mother and daughter that he had tried to 'twist' his assailant's arm away from him before Jahziah 'dropped to the floor'.

Mr Hegarty added: 'He said he did not know that Jahziah had been stabbed, but nor did he explain how there were two penetrating stab wounds.

'He claimed it was all an accident and that it shouldn't have happened.'

The mother urged the teenager to go to police and a taxi was arranged to take him to a police station, the court heard. But Mr Hegarty said that while the teenager duly went off in a cab, he 'didn't go into any police station'.

Jurors were told the youth was arrested three days later at an address in Solihull. 

A man in his 40s who was also at the address was held on suspicion of assisting an offender. He is now also on trial accused of that offence by harbouring the teenage defendant with intent to impede his apprehension and prosecution.

The younger defendant is sitting in the well of the court alongside his mother. Wearing a suit and an open-necked shirt, he studied court documents as Mr Hegarty opened the case.

The prosecutor told jurors a second youth had also previously been charged with Jahziah's murder, but that 'subsequently, the prosecution offered no evidence', ending criminal proceedings against him.

The court heard police searched the address where Jahziah died but found no traces of blood on knives in the property. 'The knife or knives used (in the attack) were taken away', Mr Hegarty told the jury.

The prosecutor said of the boy accused of murder: 'It is the prosecution case that when he inflicted the wounds on Jahziah... that when he did so he was acting unlawfully and intended to kill Jahziah or at the very least cause him really serious harm.'

The trial continues.