Teen gang armed with machetes and gun opened fire on Leeds Airbnb house party, court told
Teenagers have been put on trial after a house was attacked with machetes and a gun during a party.
Three men had faced a charge of possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, after the converted blank-firing pistol was discharged on Burnby Close in Seacroft in the early hours of the morning.
Manuel Cruz, 19, and 18-year-old Jacob Lindo are on trial at Leeds Crown Court this week. Nehemiah Elenge, 19, was initially on trial but changed his plea to guilty just two hours into the Crown’s opening of the case.
A fourth man, 23-year-old Emanuel Yeboah, has already pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing, admitting he was the driver of the BMW that drove others to Seacroft that night.
Opening the case for the Crown this week, Andrew Espley said that the house on Burnby Close was an Airbnb property available to rent.
He told the jury that shortly after 1.30am on April 12, the BMW containing four men wearing face coverings turned up outside. Three got out carrying machetes and a pistol.
A party was in full swing, although Mr Espley said it was unknown who had rented the property that night and why a gang turned up to confront them.
However, the incident was caught on CCTV and played to the jury, showing one of the men smashing a window with a machete, before the gun was fired at another window, causing it to smash.
The men then got back into the BMW and drove off at speed.
The projectile from the gun was found to be a ball bearing, fired from the converted pistol. The DNA of Yeboah, of Foundry Approach, Harehills, was found on the ball bearing later retrieved by police, along with the DNA of another person.
A witness living nearby and who heard screaming from the scene had noted the registration plate of the BMW, which was traced back to Yeboah.
Having seized the vehicle, police found a blood stain in the car from which the DNA matched Elenge.
He had maintained his innocence, but just after Mr Espley had opened the Crown’s case during the trial, Elenge, of Hamilton Avenue, Chapeltown, changed his plea to guilty.
He was bailed to appear in court at a later date.
Mr Espley said that thanks to due diligence of investigating police officers, phone messages between the remaining accused incriminates them, along with vital phone-mast data which can pinpoint a phone’s location at a given time.
He said: “The police were able to get hold of their phones and see what they had been saying and crucially, where they were.”
He said this included being at Lindo’s address on Coldcotes Drive, in Gipton, where Yeboah came to pick them up before heading to the attack scene. He said that Elenge was there, as was Cruz, of Appleton Close, Burmantofts.
Mr Espley said they were intent on going to Burnby Close to “frighten the life out of anybody at the party”, and that it was a joint venture so all are charged with having the gun.
He said the damage caused to the property ran to around £5,000, including the smashed windows. There was evidence of cannabis being smoked and empty nitrous oxide canisters strewn around.
The trial, which is expected to last at least this week, continues.