A DRUG dealer was allegedly stabbed to death and robbed by a member of his own gang after they argued about money.

Nial Koporo stabbed Tyrone Mulinde through the heart at a flat in Bridgwater which had been taken over by a London gang as a base for drug dealing, a jury has been told.

Koporo allegedly planned the attack with teenager Olivia Cromwell, who had been working as a dealer for Mr Mulinde in Yeovil.

The pair were both angry with Mr Mulinde over how much they were to be paid and Koporo attacked him within minutes of arriving in Bridgwater to meet him, Exeter Crown Court was told.

After the stabbing, Cromwell called an ambulance but hung up when asked for the address. When they called her back she told them it was a false alarm and cancelled the call.

Cromwell and Koporo both fled back to London, where he was allegedly seen washing blood off a wad of £20 notes.

Cromwell, aged 18, of Crescent Way, North Finchley, and Koporo, aged 25, of St Stephens Crescent, Westminster, both deny murder.

Mr Simon Laws, QC, prosecuting, said Mr Mulinde, nicknamed Money, was found dead at room 11 in block of social housing in George Street, Bridgwater, named Dampiet House at around 12.30 pm on Saturday October 20 last year.

He was a County Lines drug dealer from London who had 'cuckooed' and taken over the flat from its vulnerable tenant to use as a base for dealing in Bridgwater.

He employed Cromwell at £100 a day to run a satellite operation in Yeovil, where Koporo was acting as her bodyguard. He was armed with a knife at all times.

They had both been planning to go to London on the day of the killing but Mr Mulinde summoned them to a meeting at Bridgwater and sent one of two men who was working for him to fetch him.

Mr Laws said there was a dispute about how much they were to be paid with Koporo expecting £1,000 and Mr Mulinde offering only £600. Koporo also felt she had been underpaid.

CCTV showed them arriving at Dampiet House at 12.05 pm and going in with driver Adam Mulligan. They met Mr Mulinde in the lobby and went to flat 11 on the top floor. Another member of the gang, Malik Julouis, was already in the room.

The stabbing took place within the next six minutes because Julouis was seen on CCTV going down the stairs at 12.11 pm, Cromwell following moments later, and Koporo at 12.24 pm. He was carrying four bags which were thought to contain cash and drugs.

A post mortem examination showed Mr Mulinde was stabbed through the arm as he tried to defend himself and then through the chest, piercing his heart and causing a fatal injury.

Mr Laws said:"Koporo stabbed Mr Mulinde and ended his life. Cromwell told the police that almost straight after they entered the flat, Koporo attacked him.

"He punched him to the back of the head and they wrestled with each other. Koporo produced a knife and stabbed him in the arm and the chest.

"Our case against Koporo is that he is the killer. What else could explain the evidence that he changed his clothes at the first opportunity and disposed of them because they were stained with blood.

"Why else would he kill, if not for money. Who else but the killer would end up with the money?

"Cromwell was part of the plan to rob Mr Mulinde, knowing that the plan was going to involve men armed with knives. She knew full well it would involve serious violence, if necessary.

"What else can explain the evidence that she prevented why she prevented him receiving medical treatment, and do so deliberately and deviously?

"She lied to police repeatedly because she did not want her partner in crime to be arrested. She knew he could, if he chose, implicate her. Her behaviour was of someone who was part of something very serious. It was not the behaviour of an innocent bystander."

Mr Laws said Cromwell lied to police about remaining in contact with Koporo after the killing, She claimed she had not even seen him but in fact they were seen together at Bridgwater station as they fled.

She claimed to have no phone contact but in reality they remained in touch until the morning of her arrest on October 25. He made no comment at all after being arrested on November 2.

Mulligan remained with Mr Mulinde, giving him first aid and going to neighbouring rooms to summon help. He refused to cooperate with the police.

Julouis fled with Koporo to London, where they spent the night with his girlfriend before going to Luton with Koporo the next day.

Julouis's girlfriend told police she say Koporo washing blood of around £300 worth of £20 notes and drying them with a hoar dryer.

He told her he had hidden in the bathroom at the time of the killing and fled as soon as it finished. He later committed suicide by walking in front of a train at Luton after telling her he felt guilty for not helping his friend Mr Mulinde, who he had known since he was six.

CCTV showed that both Koporo and Cromwell changed their clothes between leaving the flat and arriving at the station. She changed out of a grey tracksuit at McDonalds while he replaced dark jeans and a blue camouflage jacket with light coloured trousers and a black coat.

The jury were played two 999 tapes of calls from and to Cromwell. In the first, made at the scene of the stabbing, she was crying and sometimes incoherent and rung off when asked to give the address.

The operator called her back. She did not answer the first time, but did so the second, when she had left the building. She claimed the first call had been about a friend who was choking but had recovered and cancelled the ambulance.

Koporo was living in a homeless hostel at the time and Mr Laws said he used some of the blood-stained money to pay his rent.

Five £20 notes were recovered by police and found to have Mr Mulinde's DNA on them.