A drug dealer has been jailed for murder after police analysed his mobile phone data and linked him to a vehicle abandoned at the crime scene in north London.
David Odunuga stabbed Brian Edwards three times following an argument between the pair near Finsbury Park.
Mr Edwards, 53, had gone out of his home when he was attacked on 19 September 2023.
Emergency services were scrambled to the scene at 4am.
The victim died a short time later, triggering a murder investigation.
Friends of Mr Edwards, who were in the house, said he had gone outside to meet a drug dealing before they hear him shouting for help.
Odunuga, 33, from Brentwood in Essex, was found guilty of murder and possession of an offensive weapon at the Old Bailey. He was jailed for 27 years at a sentencing hearing at the same court on Thursday.
The court heard how he was tracked down through his phone data and a BMW left abandoned at the scene which officers linked to him through DNA and DVLA records.
Detective Chief Inspector Lucy Carberry, who led the investigation, said: "This case is a stark reminder of the devastation drugs cause to communities across London.
“It should also act as a warning to those habitually carrying knives and engaging in serious violence that every effort will be made to identify and prosecute you, to ensure other families and communities do not have to feel the pain and loss that Brian’s family currently do."
Detectives spoke with two of his friends who had been at his house throughout the night.
During the trial Odunuga admitted having changed his name by deed poll to allow him to obtain a driving licence and passport used to evade prosecution for traffic offences and circumvent being disqualified from driving.
He claimed that a drug dealer took his vehicle from him as part of a drugs debt hours prior to the stabbing of Brian and denied presence or committing the murder.
He will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Thursday.
