Pool player found guilty of murdering John Joyce after dispute over game rules
A grandfather who stabbed a man to death after a dispute over a game of pool has been convicted of his murder.
The jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on Lyndon Smith who knifed 20-year-old John Joyce in a fight in Bilston after being called ‘a fool’ in a pub row.
The victim’s family, who had travelled from Ireland for the two-week trial, wept in the public gallery as the verdict was announced.
The jury deliberated for eight hours.
Smith, aged 47, had stabbed Mr Joyce four times with a kitchen knife after confronting members of his party in the street on August 17 last year.
Birmingham Crown Court was shown footage of him stabbing the six-inch blade into the bar in fury not long before.
Earlier he had been playing pool with them in The Market Tavern until banter over the rules led Smith, who had drank up to 10 pints of lager, to walk out.
He drove to his home less than a mile away, where it is believed he got the knife, returning to the scene.
The prosecution described him as ‘storming around like a man possessed’, scouring the rooms.
Father-of-four Smith left in his car with the headlights switched off, despite attempts to stop him by his wife and others in the pub.
Further down the road Smith came across his former pool opponents, Irish travellers who were visiting family in Bilston, and got out of the car, wielding the knife and goading them.
He stabbed Mr Joyce four times, including a fatal strike to the chest, before running off to Walsall Street where he stopped and confronted the group again but was overpowered by the victim’s uncle James McDonagh and friend Michael Keenan.
Mr Joyce caught up with the group and also joined in the fight before collapsing.
Paramedics, on another call, stopped and attempted to revive him but he died at the scene.
Smith had told police he had been drinking that evening despite being on medication for an anxiety disorder.
The jury found Smith not guilty of wounding Mr McDonagh, and Mr Keenan, who were stabbed in the scuffle, with intent to cause them grievous bodily harm.
Smith, of Owen Road, Bilston, had denied all charges.
Sentencing on the murder will take place on Thursday.
