Two teenagers who “celebrated” after stabbing their victim have been found guilty of murder.
Brandon Price, 19, and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, killed Jack Norton in Darlaston, near Walsall, in December.
Also known as Jack Lowe, the 18-year-old died on an area of grassland known locally as Cookie Park.
The defendants, both from Walsall, are due to be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court in January.
The trial heard Price, who was 18 at the time, was the one who stabbed Jack, but his co-defendant, who was 15, had also been charged with murder after “egging him on”.
The jury was told the victim had spent the day shopping in Walsall and Birmingham with two female friends before encountering the defendants.
The pair asked if they could “stick around and hang out” but the 16-year-old defendant soon began “behaving in a threatening manner”.
The group sat down on a bench in Cookie Park at about 21:00 GMT on 7 December 2022, one of the friends told the court.
Jack tried to leave, she said, apparently concerned about the threats the youngster was making, before Price launched the fatal attack.
The two defendants were later said to have run “out of the park laughing”, with one of the two heard to have said “you didn’t think we’d… do it – we’ve done it, we’ve done it”.
The pair were seen on CCTV, and prosecutors said separate audio captured them “whooping with excitement” as they disposed of the knife.
Price claimed he acted in self defence and stabbed Jack by accident following an “argument” in which he had tried to hit him with a bottle.
The 16-year-old said he had not been threatening and was “shocked” at the stabbing.
He said he had been walking off to go home when the incident happened and described feeling “scared” afterwards.
But giving evidence, Jack’s friend said the 16-year-old defendant had been “making it clear that he had a problem” with Jack.
The witness told jurors it was Price who inflicted the fatal injury by “swinging his arm into Jack’s chest multiple times”.
She claimed she saw a blade sticking out from the top of Price’s hand before he and his co-defendant began “jumping up and down excited”.
The pair were also found guilty of possession of a bladed article.
Hannah Whitehouse, who led the investigation for West Midlands Police, said Jack’s family had been left without answers.
“This was a totally unprovoked yet premeditated attack on a defenceless teen who was simply hanging out with his friends,” she said.
“His family still don’t know why he was targeted and this just adds to their distress and the injustice of his loss.
“I hope that the conviction of his killers gives them some peace as they continue to grieve.”