Gunman found guilty of attempted murder in Leeds drive-by and warned of lengthy jail term
A gunman who opened fired on a man on a Leeds street has been warned he faces a lengthy jail sentence after being found guilty of attempted murder.
Patson Mafaune was driving when he fired at the man from the moving Seat on Burley Road in July of last year.
It happened moments after Mafaune had put the gun against the back of the man’s head and pulled the trigger, only for it to jam.
The jury at Leeds Crown Court unanimously agreed that 23-year-old Mafaune had been trying to kill the man after a dispute over a crashed car. They deliberated for less than three hours before returning a guilty verdict.
They also found him guilty of possession of a firearm with an intent to endanger life.
Judge Tom Bayliss KC adjourned sentencing until March 6 and after remanding him back into custody, told Mafaune: “Plainly you are in a lot of trouble and plainly it will be a very long sentence.
“But I have to decide how long it will be, whether it will be a determinate sentence, an extended sentence or a life sentence.”
During the week-long trial it was heard that the victim had been unhappy after Mafaune’s brother had crashed an Audi belonging to him and owed him money as a result.
The man went to Mafaune’s house on July 24 last year, saying he wanted to discuss the debt. He was soon arrested on suspicion of threatening behaviour towards Mafaune’s mother, but later released without charge.
Mafaune and the man then agreed to meet around teatime the next day at Mr T’s burger restaurant on Burley Road to discuss the matter.
Mafaune, armed with the pistol, got into the man’s Astra when they arrived, then pulled it from his bag, held it to the man’s head, and pulled the trigger repeatedly.
Realising what was happening, then man dived out of the driver’s side of the Astra. Footage from the street captured the victim shouting to his friend: “He pointed it at my f****** head bro.”
After a brief stand-off in which a shot was fired from a distance away, Mafaune got back into his white Seat and drove off, with the victim seen to hurl a brick towards the car, but missing.
The Seat reappeared on the CCTV moments later and two more shots could be heard from the vehicle as the victim cowered behind parked cars.
Mafaune then lost control and smashed into two parked cars, forcing him to abandon his car and flee on foot.
Mafaune, of Servia Drive, Little London, claimed throughout the trial that he only intended to show the gun to the man, to warn him to stay away from his family.
He then said when the situation escalated he wanted to show him he was “being serious”.
He claimed he was firing the gun at the man’s Astra and not towards the man himself, who was stood on the other side of the street to the Astra.