Rapper cleared of teenager’s murder after four Old Bailey trials

The family of 17-year-old Tanesha Melbourne-Blake endured four Old Bailey trials before the final defendant was formally acquitted on Friday.A rapper and his friend have been cleared of murdering a 17-year-old girl who was shot dead in a drive-by shooting in Tottenham after four separate Old Bailey trials.Tanesha Melbourne-Blake was killed as she stood chatting, dancing and socialising with friends in Chalgrove Road on the evening of April 2, 2018, when a car pulled up and shots were fired from a tinted window.Marcus La Croix, 38, from Hackney, was acquitted of murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life following a retrial earlier this year.Read MoreThe outcome can only now be reported after the prosecution formally abandoned its case against co-defendant Michael Clarke, 37, of Luton, bringing to an end a lengthy legal process that has seen Tanesha's family sit through four trials.On Friday, prosecutors offered no evidence against Clarke after a jury in his retrial failed to reach verdicts last week. He was formally acquitted of murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.Reporting restrictions were lifted by Judge Mark Dennis KC at the conclusion of the case.Floral tributes rest against a wall following the murder of Tanesha Melbourne-Blake in Chalgrove Road, Tottenham, in 2018Jonathan Brady/PAThe court heard that Tanesha had spent the evening with friends playing a street game known as "penny up" against a garden wall in Northumberland Park.Witnesses described seeing a car arrive before a tinted window was lowered and a hand emerged holding what appeared to be a gun.Jurors heard there was a flash followed by a series of loud bangs before the vehicle sped away.Moments later, Tanesha screamed that she had been shot.Her boyfriend told the court she shouted: "Oh my God, duck", before crying out that she had been hit.He said he initially struggled to believe she had been wounded."I assumed she was panicking. She was behaving too normally to have been shot," he told jurors.But Tanesha soon collapsed onto the pavement, repeatedly asking for her mother to be called.Tanesha Melbourne-Blake was killed in a drive-by shooting in Tottenham, north London in April 2018 (Family handout/PA)PA MediaThe court heard Tanesha had no known involvement in gang activity and prosecutors suggested she may not have been the intended target.The prosecution alleged the shooting took place during a period of intense violence between rival north London gangs, including the Northumberland Park Killers, or NPK, and the Wood Green Mob.Jurors were told the killing followed an incident the previous day in which La Croix had allegedly been assaulted by men linked to a rival group, with footage of the attack later circulating on social media.Prosecutors claimed Clarke, a close associate of La Croix, had been prepared to act after his friend was publicly humiliated.Clarke denied any involvement in the shooting. He admitted being in the area shortly beforehand but said he had been asleep at a friend's house when the gunman struck.La Croix also denied any role in the attack, insisting he was at home at the time.A month after the shooting, a street cleaner recovered the gun wrapped in a towel in a nearby grassy area.Forensic examination found the weapon was also linked to the separate fatal shooting of 20-year-old Joseph Williams-Torres in Walthamstow weeks earlier.After four trials spanning several years, neither man now faces any further proceedings over Tanesha's death.