A Lincolnshire man who died nine days after being assaulted had accidentally overdosed on drugs.
A police investigation was launched following the death of 24-year-old Joshua Hickman to establish whether he died as a result of the assault or drugs use.
He had been found unresponsive at his home in Caleb Hill Road, Old Leake, on February 18 last year, an inquest in Lincoln heard on Tuesday (February 1).
Just a few days earlier he had gone to Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital following an “altercation” outside the town’s Asda store, during which he suffered a laceration to his left eye.
While receiving treatment on February 9, Mr Hickman had asked to see mental health services as he was anxious about a pending court case three days later.
He was said to be “polite and showing no hostility” despite being told that a report for the court could not be prepared at that point.
Mr Hickman left for the reception area where a family member was waiting.
“He was seen then to be punching himself on the head and banging his head against a wall. He attempted to cut his arm with a key,” a witness for Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust told the hearing in written evidence.
On February 17, police found Mr Hickman in Nottingham “behaving strangely” and took him to the city’s Queen’s Medical Centre.
He underwent a CT scan and was advised to remain in hospital but discharged himself before taking a taxi home, the hearing was told.
A post mortem showed nine drugs in Mr Hickman’s system, some of which had not been prescribed.
Assistant coroner Paul Cooper said: “There’s no indication this was a suicide. He knew what he was doing, this was just another day in his life.
“Maybe he took more pills than he should have done on this particular occasion.
“There are illicit substances as well as prescribed substances.”
Concluding that the death was drug-related, Mr Cooper said no single substance had proved fatal but several taken together.
A police review of CCTV images of the assault could not establish any evidence as it was too far away.
The murder trial of Lincoln man Sam Davies has heard of the desperate attempts to save his life.
A police officer described how open heart surgery was conducted on the street in the city’s Coleridge Gardens following Mr Davies being stabbed twice.
The 23-year-old victim had banged on the door of a stranger begging for help, the trial at Nottingham Crown Court was told on Monday (January 17).
The householder said in evidence that blood was spewing from between Mr Davies’ fingers as he held his stomach and said: “Help me, I’ve been stabbed.”
As emergency services were being called at about 10.45pm on May 27 last year, Mr Davies slumped on the doorstep.
A neighbour walking by came to his aid. The man said in written evidence: “He told me he was going to die and I asked him who had done this. He did not say.”
Following surgery carried out in situ, Mr Davies went into cardiac arrest and was transported to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham where he died at 2.45am the following day.
The trial had earlier heard that Mr Davies, who had fallen out with defendant Joe Jameson and later robbed him in an effort to disrupt his cannabis supply business, believed there was a £20,000 bounty on his head.
Friend Alice Marple spoke to him four days before the attack. In written evidence, she said: “I spoke to him on Sunday, May 23. He told me there was a bounty on him.
“Sam didn’t tell me how he knew this or who had placed the bounty on his head, but he said it was for £20,000.”
Meanwhile, Mr Davies’ partner of three months, Olivia Dann, said in evidence that Jameson, 24, had spoken to her at 3.40pm on the day of the attack asking for Mr Davies’ whereabouts.
The jury was shown CCTV footage of Miss Dann speaking to at least one occupant of a black car which pulled up outside the former police station in West Parade.
It was accepted that the driver was Jameson.
Miss Dann told the trial that Jameson said to her: “Where’s Sam? Is he at your house? I’m going to ***ing kill him.”
Sam Davies, 23, was killed in a stabbing at Coleridge Gardens. | Photo: Lincolnshire Police
To protect her from any involvement or harm, she and Mr Davies had agreed to pretend they had broken up and she didn’t know where he was.
Miss Dann said she stuck to the plan and told that to Jameson.
She added that Jameson then warned her that if she was lying, he was going to kill Mr Davies and hurt her too.
“He wasn’t shouting, he was speaking. He was kind of unbothered and quite calm while he was making these threats,” said Miss Dann.
Jameson’s defence barrister, Karim Khalil QC, suggested to her that she had either misheard or misunderstood what Jameson had said, which was in fact something along the lines of: “Sam is going to ****ing kill himself.”
Miss Dann, who knew Mr Davies’ mental health had taken a turn for the worse, told Mr Khalil that she had definitely not misheard what Jameson said as he’d said it twice.
She said that the sole passenger, who was in the front seat, had not looked at her or said anything during this exchange.
“It was like he was avoiding eye contact out of guilt,” she added.
When the car pulled off, Miss Dann waited until it was out of sight before immediately calling Mr Davies to warn him.
She told the court that Mr Davies did not get upset or angry but apologised for her becoming involved.
The trial also heard about records of the subsequent hours of a constant flurry of calls, attempted calls and messages between many of the seven defendants’ phones. There was also reference to CCTV images from The Lincoln Imp pub where several of them met later that day.
The defendants standing trial – all from Lincoln – are Jameson, of Whitehall Terrace; Billy Gill, 21, of Hatcliffe Gardens; Daniel Heydari, 25, of Chestnut Street; Eimantas Gochman, 20, of Sturton Close; Eric Kesel, 19, of Browning Drive; and Charlie Wakefield, 21, of Broxholme Gardens. A 17-year-old boy cannot be legally identified due to his age.
All of them deny one count of murder. Jameson also denies making a threat to kill.
Gochman was not present on Monday. The court was told he was unwell.
