A BELMONT man accused of murdering another inmate at a Sydney jail has described the frenzied knife fight and said he was acting in self-defence after he was twice attacked and stabbed in the chin during a dispute over buprenorphine.
Emmett Raymond Sheard has pleaded not guilty to murdering 33-year-old Michael Black at Parklea Correctional Centre in April 2020 and is currently on trial.
Mr Sheard is accused of using a shiv to stab Mr Black eight times in a frenzied attack while the pair were in a packed holding cell waiting to appear in court.
The stabbing occurred after Mr Black and Mr Sheard had about five minutes earlier been involved in a fist fight over buprenorphine, an opiate replacement drug.
Mr Sheard gave evidence on Tuesday, telling the jury Mr Black had asked him for drugs a few times before the fatal confrontation on April 20. He said the pair and a number of other inmates were in the holding cell when Mr Black again asked him for some "bupe".
And Mr Sheard claimed that when asking about the drug, Mr Black had told him: "I don't give a f---. In this game anything goes as long as you're not hurting women and children there are no rules. I'll kill any c---."
About an hour later, while Mr Sheard was drying out a buprenorphine strip, a prerequisite for smoking it, Mr Sheard said he was suddenly attacked by Mr Black.
He said he was "king hit", punched and kicked and twice knocked unconscious by Mr Black who said: "give me the bupe you dog".
When Mr Sheard said he had dropped the drug in the fight, he claims Mr Black pulled a shiv out of his shorts. "He said "don't talk shit, give me the bupe now or I'll f---ing kill ya"," Mr Sheard said.
About five minutes after the first fight, Mr Sheard claimed Mr Black suddenly swung at him with a knife, hitting him in the chin.
Mr Sheard said he pulled out his own shiv and the pair "both started punching and stabbing at each other" for about 10 seconds before Mr Black said "all right, that's enough".
When asked by his barrister, Public Defender Tony Evers, why he armed himself with a shiv, Mr Sheard replied: "Because he had his blade out. When I tried to fight him off with my hands he punched the shit out of me. I thought if I try to fight him off with my hands while he's got a blade he's going to kill me. And he had aimed at my neck. I thought my best chance was to fight him off with a blade."
Mr Sheard said he stopped fighting Mr Black when he said "that's enough" because Mr Black had stopped fighting him. And despite being recorded on body-worn video telling Mr Black "I hope you die", he said he did not intend to kill Mr Black and did not want him to die.
