But his killer pal went to great lengths to try to convince police he was not the culprit.
Who was Sam Caulfield?
Sam Caulfield, from Mayfield in East Sussex, was stabbed at a property in Crawley, West Sussex, on June 18 2016.
The 20-year-old was killed by his own friend, Macauley Lawless, 22.
An investigation into the stabbing of 20-year-old Sam in Crawley, West Sussex was made into a Channel Five documentary called Stabbed in the Back: Murder of Sam Caulfield.
Why was Sam Caulfield murdered?
The motive is unclear but during a trial Lawless changed his story and claimed he stabbed his pal in self-defence.
Yet the defendant had initially concocted an account that Sam had been knifed outside and then staggered into a flat where paramedics found him badly wounded on the kitchen floor.
He even pretended to police how he wanted to hunt down the supposed culprit.
The young dad of one died several hours later at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.
But in the opinion of a pathologist, the court heard, Sam would have collapsed almost immediately after being stabbed – disproving claims made by Lawless he was attacked elsewhere.
CCTV showed Caulfield arriving at the entrance to the block of flats and making his way up several flights of stairs to flat.
What was the outcome of the court case?
The jury were to reject Lawless’ self-defence claims and found him guilty of manslaughter.
Lawless was jailed for eight years and a further three years for the conspiracy charge.
In the dock with him were John Mitchell, 21, Jessica Roberts, 25 and Leah Delgado, 24, all from Crawley and all found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by going along with Lawless’ story.
Mitchell was jailed for three years and the two women both received two year sentences.
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