Wesley Jones jailed for stabbing Simon Bell over drug debt
A man who stabbed another man in the heart following a row over a drug debt in Carmarthenshire has been jailed for nine years and four months.
Wesley Jones, 30, stabbed 22-year-old Simon Bell at a family fireworks party in Llanelli on 7 November 2015.
Both men had taken heroin in a shed before the row over money to pay for the drug, Swansea Crown Court heard.
Jones, of Y Bwthyn, Llanelli, had been charged with murder but admitted manslaughter at an earlier hearing.
The court was told Mr Bell was made to leave the shed but had kicked in the door to get back in before throwing the first punch at Jones.
A fight followed and Jones stabbed Mr Bell twice; once in the shoulder and once in the heart, severing an artery.
Mr Bell died of multiple organ failure in the early hours of the following morning at Morriston Hospital in Swansea.
The court heard when Jones was taken from the house, he threw away the knife he had used.
The weapon, a folding-pocket knife, was found about 1.5 miles (2.4km) from the scene at Dillwyn Street.
Elwen Evans QC, defending, said: "It's an event that occurred spontaneously. There had been no ill-feeling between the two men."
"He knows what he has done," she said. "He deeply regrets his actions and their consequences."
Members of Mr Bell's family wept in the public gallery as victim impact statements were read on behalf of his parents.
In her statement, his mother Gillian Davies said: "My son was taken from me at such a young age and robbed of his life.
"I have been upset to the point there are no tears left to cry."
His father Neil Bell said: "It feels that part of me has died. It is ripping me apart.
"I love him and miss him so much."
The judge Mr Justice DJ Holgate said: "You were under the influence of heroin.
"The use of the knife was wholly unjustified and unlawful. No sentence other than one of immediate imprisonment is appropriate."