A Trinant man told police he had consumed a cocktail of drugs before killing a friend days after holding a knife to his throat in the street, a court heard.
Ian Davies, known by the nickname Psycho, died in hospital after receiving a single stab wound to the torso at the defendant’s home in Marshfiled Road, on January 11 this year.
Yesterday a jury at Cardiff Crown Court heard how Paul Mapps, 26, told police he had taken ketamine, mephedrone and cocaine before inflicting a 14.5cm wound.
Mapps is claiming self-defence.
The stabbing pierced the victims’ liver and caused him to “bleed profusely”, according to Paul Lewis QC prosecuting.
Mr Lewis said the defendant, his sister and his partner had been out drinking in Blackwood the night before the killing and carried on taking drugs at his house on their return.
He told the jury how, “fuelled by a cocktail of drink and drugs the defendant stabbed Mr Davies in temper” over what was probably a silly argument.
The court was played recordings of 999 calls made on the night. Mapps held his head in his hands, not looking up, while a person in the public gallery sobbed.
In the calls the defendant claimed a stranger had rushed into his house in Trinant and stabbed his friend before running off with the weapon.
Mapps later told police he stabbed Mr Davies with a knife in self-defence after he came at him with a bottle of vodka and admitted: “This is a big one, I’ll do 15 years and I’ll see my daughter again when she’s 18.”
The court heard how the men had previously came to blows in the run up to Christmas but the argument continued on the day of the stabbing, with one witness claiming Mr Davies was trying to resolve it as they were “like brothers”.
The witness, Jody Meek, said in a police statement that on the unspecified date before Christmas Mapps held a large knife to Davies’ throat during an argument that spilled out into the street.
The prosecution said Miss Meek, who lived opposite Mapps, recalled him saying: “I’ll cut you butt, I’ll kill you.”
Mapps denies murder and threatening Mr Davies with a weapon. The trial continues.