“I did not kill him and I did not have any reason” - man jointly accused of murder pleads innocence over death of housemate in South Yorkshire

Sheffield Crown Court has heard during a trial how Dimitrijus Jakimovas, aged 33, Denman Street, Eastwood, Rotherham, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Zygimantas Kromelys after he was found by police lying wounded in their kitchen.

The partner of Mr Kromelys Indre Barysaite, aged 30, who lived at the same property, has also pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Kromelys.

Police bodycam footage, which was presented to the court, showed officers and paramedics arriving during the evening of November 10, 2019, and Mr Kromelys, who had an alleged history of self-harming, was found on the kitchen floor in the arms of a tearful Ms Barysaite and Mr Jakimovas was nearby.

Mr Jakimovas told the trial on December 16 he realised 26-year-old Mr Kromelys was injured when he fell on the floor and he said he grabbed something to cover his wound.

He said: “I don’t know why but the only thing I remember is I grabbed something. I don’t know what it was or where I got it from but I simply covered the wound.”

Mr Jakimovas added he saw a blood stain on the left side of Mr Kromelys’s body.

He added: “At first I unzipped the jacket and then the t-shirt and maybe I lifted it up or something like that and then I saw the bleeding wound and I saw where it was bleeding and I covered the wound.”

Mr Jakimovas said he saw a knife near to Mr Kromelys’s hand and he dropped it in the sink and he added that Ms Barysaite went to get a charger to make phone calls.

He added neither he nor Ms Barysaite had stabbed Mr Kromelys and that he later started to think Mr Kromelys had stabbed himself.

Mr Jakimovas said: “I did not kill him and I did not have any reason.”

Ms Barysaite has claimed her partner appeared to have stabbed himself to death at their home after Mr Kromelys and Mr Jakimovas had been drinking and after Mr Kromelys had had a dispute with two visitors about a debt which seemed to change his mood.

As Mr Jakimovas compressed the wound with a towel, according to Ms Barysaite, and she made calls to Lithuanian associates because she said she cannot speak English and did not know the 999 number.

Ms Barysaite said Mr Kromelys had been self-harming and had an alcohol problem.

She claimed she once caught him trying to drink acid, had once caught him trying to hang himself, and once found a blood-stained note before finding him trying to cut his veins and chest.

The court heard Ms Barysaite and Mr Kromelys, who worked at a car-wash, had been expecting a baby but Ms Barysaite has since had a miscarriage.

Ms Barysaite admitted she lied to police that two other men were responsible for the killing because Mr Kromelys comes from a Catholic family and she wanted spare them any shame.

She said she, Mr Kromelys and Mr Jakimovas, who all speak Lithuanian, were “like a family”.

The trial continues.

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