A 28-YEAR-OLD man has been jailed for a minimum of 18 years for the murder of 26-year-old Lazarus Makono at a house party in Goldthorpe earlier this year.

On Wednesday February 21, Lazarus Makono, also known as ‘Laz’, was fatally stabbed.

Emergency services were called at 1.21am to a house on Co-operative Street, where officers found Laz with stab wounds to his chest. Despite the best efforts of police and paramedics, Lazarus sadly died at the scene a short time later.

The court heard how a disagreement and fight had broken out between Laz and two other men at the party, Sipho Pfukati and Terrance Mlotshwa. It ended with Pfukani stabbing Lazarus repeatedly before leaving him to die and fleeing from the scene.

Pfukani hid from police that night before handing himself in just a day later on February 22 at Nottingham Police Station, where he was arrested on suspicion of murder.

A detective-led investigation saw officers uncover clothing that had been worn by the men at the time of the murder discarded in a woodland area near to the scene. The knife used to stab Laz was also recovered by officers from inside the house.

Following a two-week trial, a jury found Pfukani guilty of murder on October 28 at Sheffield Crown Court. Yesterday, Sipho Pfukani, of Luxembourg Mews, London, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 18 years.

Terrance Mlotshwa, 28, of Ripley Avenue, Derby, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, also at Sheffield Crown Court, to one count of assisting an offender and one count of fraud. He was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.