A group of teenagers were looking for someone to “roll for drugs” and had targeted Jack Beasley and his friends before the 17-year-old was fatally stabbed, a court has heard.
Five teenage boys – aged between 15 and 18 at the time – were arrested after Jack died in December 2019, barely two weeks before Christmas.
He was stabbed in Surfers Paradise during a fight between his group and the five teens.
Three teens – who can’t be named – have pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and two counts of grievous bodily harm at their judge-only trial in Brisbane Supreme Court which entered its second week on Monday.
A school acquaintance of Jack – now aged 19 – and three of her mates had befriended the five teens on the Gold Coast earlier on the night of the stabbing, the court heard.
She said one of the five teens had asked whether they had drugs and where they could obtain any after meeting her group.
The 19-year-old said her group were sitting with the five boys at one end of Cavill Mall when Jack and his friends walked past.
She knew Jack and others with him from school, waving to one of them but denied there was any other interaction between the two groups.
She told crown prosecutor Todd Fuller that one of the five teen boys asked her group if they knew “anyone they could roll for drugs” and “hit a lick on”.
Asked what that meant, the 19-year-old said: “Rob someone”.
She said one of the five teens then suggested they rob Jack’s group.
“I said ‘no, I know them’,” she told the court.
The 19-year-old and her mates left the five teens at Cavill Mall.
She began to realise something had happened after receiving a text later from a member of Jack’s group, asking “who those boys were” she had been sitting with, calling them “f***ing dogs”.
The 19-year-old saw two of the five teens later that night at a Gold Coast tram stop.
The five teens had run down Surfers Paradise Boulevard pursuing Jack’s group before stopping them outside Paradise Towers apartment building and a fight breaking out, the court heard last week.
A 15-year-old had a knife tucked in his pants and stabbed Jack once and his 17-year-old friend twice during the altercation.
A teenager – who was 15 at the time of the incident – last week pleaded guilty to murder and two counts of committing malicious acts with intent.
Last month another teenager – who was 17 at the time – pleaded guilty to manslaughter and two counts of grievous bodily harm.
Justice Soraya Ryan is expected to rule on Tuesday on an application by defence barristers to have the case against all three teens dropped.
© AAP 2022
