Kayla Smith

Introduction

Kayla Smith is an 18-year-old from Leeds who admitted murdering 16-year-old Chloe Watson Dransfield, stabbing her to death in a pre-planned fight over a boy . Smith had pleaded guilty to manslaughter but denied murder; on the second day of her trial at Leeds Crown Court she changed her plea to guilty, admitting the murder to the court . The killing unfolded in the early hours of 28 March 2026, when Chloe went to Smith’s home in Kennerleigh Avenue, Leeds, with her boyfriend Blake Dowling after a row with Smith the previous evening . The judge, Mr Justice Cavanagh KC, told Smith she would be sentenced once the trial of her co-accused concludes, warning her that the only sentence available for murder is life imprisonment, with the minimum term to be set at that hearing .

Background Information

The case, as laid out by the prosecution at trial, centred on a love triangle: Dowling, 18, had been in a relationship with both Chloe and Smith and, the court heard, “knew of the bad feeling between the two females” . Dowling’s mother told the court that Smith was “jealous and obsessed” over her son’s relationship with Chloe . On the night before the killing, Chloe and Smith had argued, with the prosecution saying Smith threatened to “stab her” several times . Smith was at her grandfather’s house in Austhorpe, east Leeds, with Archie Rycroft, 20, who the prosecution says followed her to the fight . Chloe Watson Dransfield was a 16-year-old schoolgirl whose family later released a handout photograph of her to media covering the case .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted the murder of 16-year-old Chloe Watson Dransfield; to be sentenced after her co-defendants’ trial.

Just before the attack, Dowling was with Chloe and spoke to Smith on the phone . A friend of Chloe’s who was on a FaceTime call with her that night told the court she heard Dowling answer his phone and heard Smith screaming down it: “Blake, I’m gonna smash your head in… you better not be with no girls… Chloe better not be there” . When Chloe said that she was there, the witness heard Smith say: “I’m gonna stab you in your throat” . The two girls agreed to a fight, and Dowling booked a taxi to take Chloe to Smith’s home . Chloe was stabbed to death in the early hours of 28 March . Smith initially admitted manslaughter but denied murder; mid-trial, she changed her plea and admitted the murder .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The trial has been covered daily by the BBC from Leeds Crown Court, where prosecutor Mark McKone KC laid out the prosecution case that the fight was pre-planned and that Smith had threatened to stab Chloe hours before she did . The evidence about the FaceTime call — a witness hearing Smith threaten to stab Chloe in the throat moments before the taxi ride to the fatal address — has been the case’s most striking public detail, documenting in the defendant’s own words what she intended before Chloe arrived . Dowling, 18, who took Chloe to the house, and Rycroft, 20, are also charged with murder and manslaughter; both deny the charges and their trial continues, meaning the full account of who did what on the night remains to be tested before a jury . Smith’s conviction rests on her own plea of guilty to murder, not on any finding against her co-accused .

Current Status

Smith stands convicted of murder by her own guilty plea entered on the second day of her trial, reported on 12 November 2026 . She has not yet been sentenced: Mr Justice Cavanagh KC adjourned sentencing until after the trial of Dowling and Rycroft concludes, and told her that life imprisonment is the only sentence he can pass, with the minimum term to be determined at the sentencing hearing . The co-defendants’ trial is ongoing, and they deny murder and manslaughter . No date for Smith’s sentencing hearing was reported in the coverage of her plea .

Impact on Their Career/Life

At 18, Smith faces the certainty of a life sentence, to be formally imposed once the jury in the parallel trial has finished its work, with the minimum term she must serve to be set in public by the same judge who heard her admit the killing . The plea spared Chloe’s family the ordeal of awaiting a verdict in her trial, but the continuing trial of the two co-accused means the case remains in the courts and in the news for months to come . For a defendant so young, an admitted murder places her among the small number of teenagers in England and Wales serving life detention, and the court’s public record of her threats — screamed down a phone minutes before the fatal fight — will frame every future parole consideration of her case .

Sources

• “Teenage girl admits murder in row over boy” — BBC News, 12 November 2026: source