Murder suspect claims he only had a knife to frighten others during street fight

An on-going Sheffield Crown Court trial has heard how Mentor Selmani, aged 28, of Matcham Road, London, Marsid Senia, 25, of Burnett Street, Bradford and Mardov Dushku, 30, of Shirecliffe Lane, Sheffield, have all pleaded not guilty to murdering Armend Xhika.

Samuel Green, prosecuting, said Mr Xhika died after being fatally stabbed following a confrontation on Earl Marshal Road, in Fir Vale, Sheffield, on May 13, 2021, when a group including the defendants had met another group including Armend Xhika and three friends – who were also wounded.

Mr Green claims the three defendants were armed with weapons and knives and murdered Armend Xhika in a joint enterprise and wounded the other three men who also suffered stab wounds as the incident was captured on CCTV.

Mentor Selmani told the jury that he had been standing on the other side of the road smoking and using his phone and he had heard the two groups becoming unfriendly so he took someone else’s knife from a parked van.

He said: “I was thinking I was going to try and separate the parties and to frighten them in order for the others to leave.”

Defence barrister Vanessa Marshall KC confirmed Mr Selmani ran towards the groups as a fight broke out and he thought one of his friends had been punched.

Mr Selmani said: “I did not want to get myself involved in a fist fight and I thought I would be better holding this item in order to frighten them.”

He added: “My focus was to go towards the group in order to frighten them. I was not concentrating on who was doing what.”

Mr Selamani said: “I had the knife with the point upwards. Throughout the fight I was trying to frighten these people only using the butt of the knife. I was not actually using it. Just pretending to use it in order to frighten them.”

He insisted he did not intend to stab anyone and he had absolutely not stabbed anyone during the incident and he had been taking the knife in an out of a sheath throughout.

Ms Marshall showed CCTV of Mr Selmani chasing one of Mr Xhika’s friends, Mikael Kanachi, who was being attacked by another one of the accused.

Mr Selmani said: “I was making a pretend gesture to hit him with the butt of the knife to frighten him away, to make him leave.”

Ms Marshall confirmed with Mr Selmani that he had not seen anyone else being attacked or stabbed after he had pursued Mr Kanachi.

However, he admitted approaching another of Mr Xhika’s friends, Durim Dervishanji, as he tried to flee in a van which got trapped on a pavement surrounded by Mr Selmani and another of the accused but he did not see anyone else with a knife.

Mr Selmani said he also took a stick so it could not be used against him but he admitted using the stick to hit a parked BMW linked to Mr Xhika’s group.

He added: “I did not know what was happening and I did not know who these people were.”

Mr Green, prosecuting, said the meeting was arranged after Armend Xhika had been driving a Vauxhall Insignia that had been damaged in a road traffic collision with an Audi vehicle occupied by two Albanians earlier on the same day.

During the meeting a member of the defendants’ group had punched Armend Xhika before the defendants’ group chased Armend Xhika’s group and inflicted violence upon them and he claimed that CCTV footage suggests Armend Xhika was stabbed on several occasions.

He added that the prosecution cannot say who administered the fatal stab wound to Armend Xhika but he claimed that the defendants and two others in their group were jointly responsible for the murder.

Mr Green said Armend Xhika died as a result of being stabbed in the chest and three other members of Mr Xhika’s group were also assaulted and injured during the same incident.

Mentor Selmani, Marsid Senia, and Mardov Dushku have all also pleaded not guilty to three counts of wounding with intent concerning three other men who had been with Armend Xhika including Durim Dervishanji, Mikael Kanachi and Fatson Dushku.

The trial continues.