THE trial of two 'crack cocaine addicts' charged with killing a Basingstoke man has begun.

David John Henwood (also known as David Brewer) and Kasey Wayne Rolfe appeared at Winchester Crown Court today each charged with murder, and also with manslaughter causing the death of Jason Williams.

The pair have denied the charges against them.

The body of Mr Williams, 41, was found near Russell Howard Park, South Ham in the early hours of February 20, 2018. He had suffered a single stab wound to the heart.

In opening the case, prosecutor Matthew Jewell told the jury the case came from the defendants’ need to buy Class A drugs.

Mr Jewell plotted out a timeline for the jury, starting on February 19 from Henwood leaving his first day at a new job with Nationcare Windows, up until the moment of the pair’s arrest.

The court heard that on February 19, the pair had contacted a drug supply group named Panda, of which Mr Williams was a supplier, to score crack cocaine, which the court heard both Henwood and Rolfe were addicted to.

Mr Jewell said: “They received a bulk text saying, ‘I’m about Panda’ which indicated there were drugs for sale.”

Mr Jewell proceeded to plot out Henwood’s route that day from a tracker which was placed in his work van.

After an initial drug deal, which took place at around 8pm in an alleyway off Margaret Road, the court heard there was a period where Henwood travelled from his home in Edmund Court to various locations until he received a call from Rolfe at 11.36pm to pick him up.

Mr Jewell added: “Mr Henwood drove Mr Rolfe to a post office in Watson Way, where he used his card 16 times to check his account, but his account remained empty.”

The prosecutor implied Rolfe believed he was due a benefits payment, hence why he checked so many times.

He added: “Both men intended to buy more drugs but they had no money to buy more. At 12.10am David Henwood made the call to the Panda network to organise another deal.”

The court heard a knife was kept on the fuse box at Rolfe’s ex-partner’s house in St Peter’s Road, South Ham, which the prosecution claims to be the knife used to cause Mr Williams death.

After organising another deal, the court heard how the pair made a brief trip back to Rolfe’s ex-partner’s residence for just 29 seconds, before travelling to a different location to access the same alleyway as where the first deal took place.

When questioned by the police about the short stop at the St Peter’s Road address, Rolfe said his “phone was out of charge” and he needed to get the number for Panda the court heard.

The prosecution believes it is in the alleyway when the alleged murder took place and the court was told a witness had “heard a male voice scream” and “saw a male jogging down the alleyway”.

After the meeting, Mr Jewell told the jury Henwood dropped Rolfe back to the address in St Peter’s Road.

Mr Jewell said: “He then drove to a road called Tobago Close, where there is a footpath that leads to a lake and then he went back to Edmund Court.

“A later police search found a Radius kitchen knife in the lake which had traces of Mr Williams’s DNA on it.”

The trial continues.