A troubled teenager with a violent obsession with knives who stabbed a man through the heart with a Rambo-style blade has been jailed for life for murder.
Charles Hartle, who was 17 at the time, grinned before plunging the knife into Noah Smedley’s chest.
He was told he would serve at least 20 years before he is eligible for parole after being jailed for life.
Derby Crown Court heard Hartle had a fixation with knives and killing people he believed to be opponents and a dangerous obsession with gang culture.
He posted images of himself with blades on social media accounts such as Instagram and regularly carried a Rambo-style knife for ‘the kudos and bravado’ and to show others he was a ‘big man’.
He had denied murder but was found guilty following a two-week trial. Jurors were told how he ‘grinned or smiled’ before deliberately aiming for Mr Smedley’s chest with the knife which he kept hidden in his tracksuit bottoms.
Mr Smedley, 18, who was found in the street by passers by who tried to save him, died at the scene in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, on the evening of December 28 last year.
Jailing him on Friday, Judge Shaun Smith KC said the killing was ‘yet another reminder of the dreadful epidemic of knife crime’.
The court heard Hartle had written a rap song containing the line ‘to the opps that are wearing vests, for f*** sake let me just shank your heart’, which the judge said indicated a ‘very alarming side to you’.
The judge told Hartle: ‘Your music and lyrics boasted of being an experienced drug dealer and your affiliation with a gang.
‘They demonstrated an obsession with carrying lethal weapons to kill or maim others.’
‘You delivered the single fatal blow, no provocation, no hesitation, straight into the heart and out again.’
Hartle was found guilty of murdering Noah after a two-week trial at Derby Crown Court
CCTV footage showed Hartle holding the Rambo-style knife before the attack
Noah Smedley, pictured, died at the scene despite the efforts of passers by and paramedics
The defendant, who appeared in the dock wearing glasses, a dark suit and a white shirt and bit his nails, showed no emotion as he was sentenced for the killing.
The court heard Hartle had been known to police since the age of 12 with officers called out by his own family and the defendant’s school about his fixation with knives.
Prosecutor Adrian Langdale KC said: ‘By the end of 2024 he became obsessed with carrying and using lethal weapons to maim and kill others.’
The court heard that Hartle, whose mother died when he was 11, had been working as a ‘child slave’ since he was 12, selling drugs for older gang members.
On the evening of the attack, Hartle and his friends had arranged to meet Mr Smedley who arrived at the scene on an electric scooter at around 8.15pm and sold them cannabis.
Moments after the deal had taken place Hartle moved forward and pushed the blade into the victim’s chest before he and his friends fled.
CCTV played during the trial showed Mr Smedley stagger into the road and collapse.
Despite the efforts of passers-by and paramedics he was declared dead at the scene a short time later.
Hartle later handed himself in and was arrested on suspicion of murder
Hartle could be seen and heard on camera taking a phone call and telling the other person to take him off speaker phone
The attack happened on the evening of December 28 last year with the knife he kept hidden in his tracksuit bottoms
Jurors were told one of Hartle’s friends who was at the scene later said: ‘Charlie looked at Noah. He pulled up his balaclava at the time.
‘We didn’t realise anything was gonna happen and they just stared at each other for about one second.
‘And that’s when it happened, he pulled out his knife in an instant, and just stabbed Noah with it.’
Another witness said: ‘Charlie pulled his balaclava down so his mouth was on show. He gave a big smile, like a full-tooth smile, stabbed Noah, and ran straight off.’
Mr Langdale said Mr Smedley ‘did absolutely nothing’ and wasn’t armed.
‘There was no good reason for killing him’, he told the jury.
He described the murder as an ‘utterly pointless killing’.
Afterwards, Hartle, who liked to go by the nickname Lil Cee, was caught on CCTV fleeing the scene before taking a taxi to meet his girlfriend at a house party, where he told her what he had done and produced the knife.
He then went to Derby city centre before disposing of his clothing, the knife, and his phone, before handing himself in to police.
Hartle chose not to give any evidence in his defence but in a prepared statement given to police he said he accepted inflicting the injury on Mr Smedley but felt he had acted in self-defence.
He said: ‘There is a history to this, and Noah and I did not get on.
‘He has, in the past, made numerous threats to me and made disparaging comments. He has threatened me with violence.
‘I was petrified that he was about to lunge at me. In that split second, I instinctively lashed out with the knife I had, in self-defence.’
Jurors took less than three hours to find him guilty.
Officers at the scene of the murder in Ilkeston, Derbyshire in December last year
Peter Joyce KC, in mitigation, said eight weeks before the killing Hartle had been deemed by the authorities to be a victim of modern day slavery.
He said older men had been exploiting him to sell drugs in and around Derbyshire.
The barrister said ‘He had been enslaved under the evil influence of others, his mother died when he was 11 and by 12 and 13 he was involved at the behest of others and was found with knives and drugs.
‘There is the clearest evidence in this case that this child, yes child, was a child slave.’
Mr Joyce said: ‘It is real mitigation for him that throughout his teenage years, up to when he committed this offence, the authorities knew about him and the authorities did precisely nothing.
‘Nothing was done by the local authority, the police authority, the education authority, to prevent what happened. This was a very troubled child.’
In a victim impact statement, Mr Smedley’s mother Lucy Warner said: ‘My son is a pile of ash for no reason. My family is living an eternal nightmare.’
Noah’s great-grandfather, grandfather, father and two uncles said: ‘We have heard stories about his heart-warming silliness.
‘His laughter and humour were contagious and his playful mimicking of people was always done with kindness.
‘Noah was a a happy, loud, loveable know-it-all 18-year-old. He went through trying times in his life and never used them as an excuse. We love you more than words can say, Noah, we will carry you in our hearts forever.’
James Whyley from the Crown Prosecution Service said: ‘This was a tragic and utterly pointless loss of life, caused only by the defendant’s fixation with gangs and knives.’
Detective Chief Inspector Claudia Musson, from the East Midlands Special Operations Unit, said: ‘Hartle deliberately chose to carry a knife to this meeting with Noah and his actions on the night are those of a callous and calculated killer.
‘His efforts to dispose of evidence, and attempt to distance himself from the scene show his clear lack of remorse for his actions and for Noah’s family.
‘Noah was simply doing what many young men of his age do on that night and spending time with his friends. He showed no aggression towards Hartle and made no threats.
‘Yet Hartle deliberately and coldly chose to end his life for reasons known only to him.’
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