Guilty Of Murder: Law Graduate Who Stabbed Boyfriend In Heart

Arrested: Blaze Wallace

A law graduate, who plunged a kitchen knife into the heart of her unborn daughter’s father, has been convicted of murder.

Blaze Lily Wallace, 28, who had ambitions to become a human rights lawyer, followed Samuel Mayo, 34, after a domestic at their home and stabbed him in the street.

Witnesses heard his final, desperate words as he repeatedly shouted: “Please Blaze. I love you, please Blaze.”

Bare-chested Samuel suffered a fatal 4cm wound in Lower Richmond Road, Mortlake on July 18, last year and bled to death at around 9.45pm as he begged motorists and passers-by to call an ambulance.

The Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court jury of eight women and four men unanimously convicted Wallace after ten-and-a-half hours deliberation following the three-week trial.

They also unanimously convicted her of possessing an offensive weapon at the same time and place and she was remanded in custody to be sentenced on August 4. 

Judge Rajeev Shetty told the jurors: “Ms Wallace has been in Springfield psychiatric hospital until relatively recently and I need to get more information on her.”

The jury rejected Wallace’s claim Mayo was armed with an improvised sharpened wooden chopstick and she was simply using the knife to ward him off to protect herself and her unborn child.

Happier Times: Mayo & Wallace

Wallace graduated from St. Mary’s University, Twickenham with a law degree in 2017 and when arrested was one month short of completing her Masters in Human Rights & Legal Practice at the University of Roehampton.

She gave birth on March 30 after being transferred in custody to St. George’s Hospital and her older brother currently has care of her daughter.  

Both were under the influence of heroin, cocaine and cannabis that evening and had rowed at Wallace’s one-bedroom housing association flat in nearby Mullins Path.

CCTV footage showed Wallace deliberately following Mayo, while armed with the knife in her pocket, catching up with him outside the huge Stag Brewery.

“The defendant had clearly caught up with her intended victim and they disappear off camera to the left of the screen,” said prosecutor Jane Bickerstaff KC at the start of the trial.

“The incident is not captured on CCTV footage, but in just under thirty seconds Mayo appears back on screen and he is now fatally injured.

“He can be seen to run into the road and back onto the pavement on the other side of the road, where he collapsed and died.”

“It is the Crown’s case that the defendant had a large kitchen knife concealed at her right side. She took it out and stabbed Mr Mayo once, straight into his heart.

“We say this was intentional and with no lawful reason and the defendant’s intention at the time was to kill her boyfriend, or at the very least to cause him really serious harm.”

Eight stone Mayo bled to death at the scene and when police arrived at 9.57pm they immediately recognised him as a local drug user, who regularly begged outside Tesco’s and Mortlake train station.

He was taken to Kingston Hospital and pronounced dead at 10.33pm.

Locals heard some of his final words as he shouted: “Please Blaze. I love you, please Blaze.” 

Police officers arrived at Wallace’s home at 1.00am, but she failed to give them the same explanation, regarding the chopstick.

Wallace - now noticeably heavier than when she was arrested - told the jury why she did not want to talk to the officers. “My dad told me not to say anything and I had no solicitor. I did not want to spend the night in a cell, it was overwhelming.”

Describing that night’s events she explained: “I said: ‘Get the f*** out of my house,’ and he said: ‘You’re nasty,’ or something and then walked off.

“There was a big clean knife on the side and it freaked me out. The logical thing was to keep the knife on me out of harms way and I did not think to throw it in the bin,” she told the court.

“I saw him in the distance and tried to apologise to him for not letting him have a bath and went to say I was freaked out by his weapon-hiding and he pulled out a sharpened chopstick and said: ‘That’s what time it is.’

“It was wooden, but bladed, like a home-made shank, like an ice pick and he used it like an inconspicuous weapon.”

Wallace claimed Mayo had been physically abusive during their three-month relationship and had smashed her into a hallway mirror - cutting her hand - and punched her in the stomach the week before.

“He started moving his hand up until the chopstick was by my neck and said: ‘C’mon. Say pussy one more time.’

“I’ve frozen up and tried to back away from him and he has gone to grab me where the knife was in my pocket and I pulled the knife out of my pocket backwards and he has pulled the chopstick backwards off my neck.

“I put the knife out as a deterrent to get back and he has lunged forward and I did not get a chance to pull the knife back.

“He has got a mad look on his face and I have felt the knife go in quite hard.

“I said: ‘What’s wrong with you?’ and could see the slit in his chest and a tiny bit of blood on the knife and he started shouting: ‘Blaze, Blaze.’

“It was horrible. I did not mean any impact, I meant to gesture for him to get back,” Wallace told the jury.

“I was in fear of my belly and the foetus inside from either a punch or a stab. If I hadn’t had the knife on me I’d have to defend myself with my hands.

“I did not want to cause any harm. I wanted to deter him from attacking me by holding the knife out.”

No wooden chopstick was found in the area during the subsequent police investigation.