Leneto Kellengbeck

Unsolved Murders

Age: 24

Sex: male

Date: 29 Mar 2020

Place: Arran Way, Smiths Wood, Solihull, Birmingham

Leneto Kellengbeck was found stabbed in Arran Way, Solihull on 29 March 2020.

A man was tried for his murder but acquitted.

He was stabbed 25 times at about 11.15pm after arriving back at his mother's home in Arran Way with a takeaway meal. He had been stabbed in the chest, puncturing his lung and in the groin where a blood vessel was severed.

Leneto Kellengbeck was noted for having been a skilled kick boxer and a software developer.

The man tried denied that he murdered Leneto Kellengbeck. He admitted having been in the area at the time on his bicycle selling drugs, but said that he didn't attack him. He said that he had known Leneto Kellengbeck when they were teenagers, but denied having any disagreement with him.

Leneto Kellengbeck's mother said that Leneto Kellengbeck had known the man on trial for some time and that the man used to come to their house, noting that he had been polite and that they had spent a lot of time together. She said that on the night of his murder Leneto Kellengbeck had come home from work looking distant and that when she asked him what the matter was he had replied, 'Nothing I can’t handle'. She said that he then later went out for something to eat and that that was the last time she saw him.

Leneto Kellengbeck's ex-girlfriend said that they had split up in 2017 because he had been sleeping with another person's girlfriend. She said that Leneto Kellengbeck had been a player and had not been short of female attention. She said that he had come round earlier in the day on 29 March 2020 to pick her daughter up, noting that he had been happy because it was the weekend and that she later received a Whatsapp video of her daughter playing on the bed, with Leneto Kellengbeck stating that she was fine and happy.

She said that just after midnight she then got a call from Leneto Kellengbeck's mother to say that he was dead.

Leneto Kellengbeck's sister said that she was aware at 10pm that Leneto Kellengbeck had gone out to collect some chicken, and that she later saw him outside in his car on the phone. She noted that around January 2019 that Leneto Kellengbeck had parked his car in Arran Way and later found that two of his tyres had been slashed, but noted that the incident was not reported. She also noted that another time that Leneto Kellengbeck had parked his car in Arran Way and four men had approached and that Leneto Kellengbeck kept asking her whether the men were staring at her.

When she was asked whether Leneto Kellengbeck had had quite a few relatively short relationships with quite a few girls, she said, 'Yes', adding that he had been a ladies' man.

Two people said that earlier on the day of the murder that they heard a man on a phone saying, 'Man's in the big league now', and 'Man's are going to get stabbed up'.

A woman that saw the man said that she had just picked up a child from a local nursery at about 11.40am when she saw the man, noting that he was quite jumpy and looked like he was on something. She said:

He was on a brick wall next to the vets. He had his leg over a bicycle, leaning against a wall and was wearing a dark tracksuit and had a black man bag. He was black. He was quite tall, he had dreadlocks, like really short dreadlocks, He kept taking his hat on and off. He had two phones on him and was jumping on and off the wall. He was on about how he was going to stab a man up and that he was in the big league now. ‘Man is going to get cut up’ is exactly what he said. He was really excited so everyone who walked past would have heard that conversation. His friend came out to Tesco and that’s when he started talking to him. At that point I was going to go. I did not want to expose my child to any more.

Another woman that saw the man said:

That day I saw a lad on a bicycle in Green Lane in Castle Bromwich. I walked past him on the way to the nursery. He was just really alert looking around, being very aware. It was next to Tesco. He was leaning against the wall.

She said that after she picked her child up from the nursery she saw the man again and said:

He was in the same place. He was still very alert, on edge, because I had two small children it made me feel wary. I tried to stay out of the way of him. I heard him on the phone. He was very angry. He said, ‘I have got kids, This is Big Man Tings'. He was very agitated practically screaming at this point. He was wearing a navy blue tracksuit. He was quite tall. He was a black man. He had a black pouch over his shoulder. The day after I heard about what had happened. I thought it was quite suspicious.

However, she was unable to pick the man out at an identification parade.

Another witness, a person that lived nearby, said that they heard Leneto Kellengbeck say, 'I'm sorry', to an attacker that had had him up against some railings in Arran Way.

The murder was also seen by a couple in a car who had been driven home by a friend.

The husband of the couple said:

We were coming up towards the mini roundabout and I saw two men on the grass verge. They were behind the fence in front of the flats. The man on the right was attacking the man on the left. I did see shiny object in the man’s hand and I saw it pull out of the man’s chest and go in again. He was thrusting forward. The man on the left looked like he was in a defensive position. I saw the event happen and we pulled up and used a telephone to call the police. I was going to get out but my wife told me to stay in the car in case the man was still there. The operator asked me If I could still see the people and I asked her to turn the car around. I saw one man lying with his back against me. His back was against the railings towards us.

When he was asked what the man looked like, he said:

The attacker was wearing all black clothing. I could not see his face. He had a face covering. It was more like a balaclava. I could not see any facial features.

When he was asked how tall the man was he said:

I would have said around six foot, because when they were standing together they were at a similar height. I could not identify the skin colour. The knife blade was around 12 to 15 inches long. The blade looked shiny along the edges. It was pretty quick. They were moving and we were passing them.

The woman that had been driving the couple home said that she had finished work at 11pm on 29 March 2020 and got to Arran Way at about 11.15pm when the husband of the couple said he saw something going on at the side of the road. She said that when she looked she saw two shadows of men scuffling. She said that she then saw one of the men strike at the other with what looked like a bread knife. However, she said that she didn't want to stop the car because it was dangerous and so she drove on and they then pulled up at a layby and called the police. She said that after about a minute she turned the car around and they went back, and saw Leneto Kellengbeck behind some railings and they then got out to help him.

CCTV evidence was shown at the trial.

The evidence included footage of Leneto Kellengbeck at Peri Peri, a takeaway, at 10.40pm. After that he got back in his car and made a SnapChat video at 11.04pm.

Footage was also shown of the lights of Leneto Kellengbeck's car when he got home as well as footage of a man cycling along the pavement near an alleyway with a backpack, who the prosecution said had been the man on trial.

The prosecution said that the man changed his clothes in the alleyway and left his bike there. They said:

We say that is where he (the defendant) must have gone up that little alleyway. It is not caught by CCTV. We know he did not appear on the other side and we know he dropped his bike off and changed his clothes. We say inside that rucksack was his killing material, a knife, a balaclava and a hooded top. You will hear he regularly goes to an address in this area.

Further CCTV footage showed Leneto Kellengbeck's sisters car at 11.10pm and then a man with a hood up walking into Aaran Way.

The man was then seen to look at a motorbike over his shoulder, with the prosecution noting that what was thought to have been a knife was seen in his right hand.

The prosecution stated that the man then attacked Leneto Kellengbeck in his drive two minutes later, with his left arm swinging after which two figures were seen running, which were said to have been the murderer chasing Leneto Kellengbeck, and that after killing him the man had gone back to the alleyway and got his bike and gone to Clare House. The prosecution detailed the course of events after the man left the alleyway, saying:

We see the figure this time not on his bike. We say that this man is the killer. He appears to be carrying an item in his right hand. You see the killer on the second trip around the same square. The killer looks over his left shoulder no doubt being aware of a motorcycle and you can see the murder weapon in his right hand. Note the time 11.15pm. The man chasing after Len. You see a single figure running back from right to left, back towards Auckland Drive followed by a second figure chasing again. You will hear from two witnesses who were in a car and they literally happened upon the killing as they drove past. There are no other candidates for the killing. The timing all fits.

It was said that after that that the murderer was seen arriving at Clare House with his bicycle and to go up in a lift. The prosecution stated that that man had been the murderer and that he was notably out of breath and that there was no one else about at that time, making him the only candidate for the killing.

It was noted that the first shot of the murderer approaching Aaran Way was at 11.06 pm and that the police determined that whilst the man tried had been making a lot of calls through the evening, between 11.06 to 11.22pm he didn't make any calls or send any text messages and that when people tried phoning or texting him they were all unanswered. The prosecution said:

That is because he was involved in tracking and killing Len. It took the police time to gather the strands of evidence. Two and a half weeks later they had the evidence to arrest the defendant.

It was noted that earlier in the day, between 7.32pm to 7.56pm there were 50 odd calls, mainly to his phone but some made by him and that at 10.02pm he received a number of text messages over a 28 minute period. It was said that at 10.39pm Leneto Kellengbeck arrived at Veri Peri in Chester Road and put a Snap Chat video out and that there were then a series of calls and text messages from various numbers to the man on trial's phone, most of which connected.

It was heard then that at 11.19pm, a number tried to call the man and that he called back and had a 46 second conversation. There was then a 28-minute gap with no calls and then between 12.15 am and 1.45 am a significant number of calls were logged both in and out of his phone.

Other CCTV evidence was shown from earlier in the day, the last daylight footage being at 5.23pm when the man tried was seen with a rucksack on his back. It was noted that the footage showed the man on trial on his bike, it being pointed out that he was a fairly distinctive individual with dreadlocks. It was also noted that the two witnesses that had seen the man talking about knifing someone matched the man seen in the CCTV footage and the man being tried.

It was noted that when the man was interviewed, he declined to answer any questions.

At the trial the prosecution submitted that Leneto Kellengbeck, having been a ladies man, might have trodden on someone’s toes. However, they noted that the motive might never been known but said that whatever the reason was, Leneto Kellengbeck must have done something to upset his killer as the ferocity of the attack upon him was at such a level that whoever did it had the sole intention of finishing his life, noting that it was not a robbery gone wrong. The prosecution said, 'This was a planned and calculated act of savagery'.

The man was tried at Birmingham Crown Court on 17 November 2020. The prosecution noted that it was a classic circumstantial case based mostly around the CCTV evidence.

However, the man was acquitted.

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