Trio guilty of killing wrong man in Wakefield drive-by shooting

The court heard during the trial that the victim, Dale Stogden, known as Brett, was likely not the intended target of the shooting

Leyton Davies, aged 28, of Hillcrest Avenue, Ossett, was found guilty of murder following a two-week trial at Leeds Crown Court.

Adam Ahmed, aged 21, of Robin Hood Crescent, Wakefield and Marc Carter, aged 20, formerly of Dunbar Street, Wakefield, were both found guilty of manslaughter.

They all previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to supply Class A drugs (heroin and cocaine) and a date for them to be sentenced for all matters will be set in due course.

Police were called to Doncaster Road at 9.43pm on August 12 last year to a report a man had been shot at from a vehicle.

The man, later identified as Brett, was taken to hospital but died shortly after 10.30pm that night as a result of a single gunshot wound.

It was quickly established through witness accounts and CCTV enquiries that Brett had been with a female friend but that there had also been two other men there at the time of the shooting who had run away immediately afterward and who may have been the intended target or targets.

Longer term CCTV enquiries showed that from around 4.50pm to just before 6pm that day, the three defendants and a fourth person - who was not in the vehicle at the time of the shooting – had been driving around the Agbrigg area and exchanged messages which indicated they were looking for these other two men.

Ahmed, Carter and Davies began their search again at 9.23pm that night with further CCTV footage showing Ahmed secreting a machete before they got into the Toyota RAV4 which was used in the crime.

The RAV4 had been stolen in a burglary in Castleford and was on cloned plates at the time of the incident.

The investigation established that the vehicle was driven by Ahmed, with Carter in the front passenger seat and Davies sat behind him.

Ahmed initially drove past Brett and the others, who were stood around the bus stop outside the BP petrol station.

He then made a U-turn and slowed down allowing Davies to fire the shot from an open window before speeding away from the scene.

The weapon used has not been found but evidence points to it being a converted blank firing pistol using a modified blank firing cartridge which was capable of discharging a metal sphere projectile.

Officers recovered the RAV4 the day after the murder after it was found abandoned on Dunbar Street, Wakefield.

Enquiries with local taxi companies confirmed the defendants had been picked up by a taxi driver, with them making a couple of stops before being dropped off at Davies’ home address.

All three men were arrested on August 15. They were charged on August 18 and have been remanded in custody ever since

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector James Entwistle, of the homicide and major enquiry team, said: “From what we now understand of this crime, it looks like Brett was not the intended target of this shooting.

"However, as was made clear throughout this trial, killing the wrong person is no defence.

“Him not being the target certainly does not take away from the grief that Brett’s family and friends’ have suffered.

“It is clear that Ahmed, Carter and Davies set out that day intending to cause serious harm. We know they had both a machete and a converted blank firing pistol in their possession and that they had spent some time before this incident searching the local area.

"They have demonstrated that they are dangerous men who are willing to use extreme levels of violence to settle a score.

“This case highlights the dangers of blank firing firearms which are being converted, such as in this incident, into lethal purpose weapons.

"West Yorkshire Police has been part of a recent amnesty for specific types of Italian made blank-firing weapons and will continue working to disrupt the supply and criminal use of firearms.”