MURDER UPDATE: Provisional trial date set
But after initially being charged only with attempted theft from him as he lay motionless on the ground, Donna Windsor, 37, of Betjeman Close, Stratford, was also charged with being involved in his murder.
Mr Wallace, of Arden Street, Stratford, died at the scene after being involved in an incident near the junction of Arden Street and Birmingham Road during the late afternoon on June 22.
It was said at an earlier hearing that he was subjected to ‘a sustained assault by way of kicking, punching and stamping’.
With them in the dock was Florence Caines who prosecutor Peter Grieves-Smith said he understood was the only defendant who was to be arraigned at the hearing.
Miss Caines, 26, of Kineton Road, Wellesbourne, then pleaded guilty to the theft of Mr Wallace’s phone.
Discussing possible dates for trial of the other four defendants on the murder charge, the Recorder of Birmingham, Judge Melbourne Inman QC, said that with a time estimate of four weeks, it could be tried at Nottingham Crown Court in February.
Judge Inman said that if the trial was to last longer than that, the earliest date it could be heard by a High Court judge was 4th April at Birmingham Crown Court.
Told that, because of the large number of witnesses to the incident, the trial was likely to last for six weeks, he remarked that although there was court time available in February, no High Court judge would be available to do a six-week trial at that time.
So he ordered that the trial, with a six-week time estimate, should be fixed for 5th April at Birmingham.
After ordering that a prosecution pathologist’s report should be served on the defence by late October, he adjourned the plea and case management hearing in respect of Jelf, Mallon, Potter and Windsor until 11th December.
Jane Brady, for Caines, asked for her to be sentenced straight away for the theft, without a pre-sentence report, pointing out that she had already been on remand for 90 days.
But that was rejected by Judge Inman, although he said it could be reviewed at the next hearing, and all the defendants were remanded in custody until December.
