An armed robber from Birmingham who was jailed for shooting dead a student during a raid at a building society has failed in a bid to have his conviction overturned.

Lynton Fletcher, pictured, was jailed for life for killing 28-year-old innocent bystander Joseph Nwabuko, of Walsall, who witnessed the raid in Birmingham city centre in 2004.

Fletcher continues to deny involvement in the killing and took his case to the Criminal Appeal Court in London.

Mr Nwabuko, formerly of Murdock Way, Beechdale, had moved to student digs near the Bullring. He came face-to-face with a gang as they fled the building society and was shot. Fletcher, of Duddeston Manor, Nechells, was sentenced at Birmingham Crown Court last November after being convicted of the murder and conspiracy to rob. He was ordered to serve 27 years for murder and 18 years for the other robbery offences.

Barrister Tim Owen QC argued that there was insufficient evidence on which a reasonable jury could convict Fletcher of murder and that the trial should have been stopped.

But three judges – Lord Justice Moses, Mr Justice Openshaw and Judge John Diehl QC – dismissed his appeal and upheld the conviction.

During his trial, Fletcher, who was also convicted of conspiracy to commit robberies after a series of violent raids in the Midlands, denied responsibility for the killing, which happened after Mr Nwabuko witnessed a raid on a Securicor van near the Nationwide branch on February 9 2004.

He watched the three robbers, who used trackers to follow the security van, returning to their getaway car but was killed when one of the raiders returned and shot him in the chest.

Yesterday, Mr Owen said there was not enough evidence linking Fletcher to the murder for the allegation to be left for a jury to consider. But Lord Justice Moses said the judges reached the view that all of the evidence together “was evidence on which a reasonable jury was entitled to convict”.