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Inside story of how masked gunman shot dead 'Gummy Twin' John Jones

A drug dealer who fancied himself as "the big man" shot dead acquaintance "Gummy Twin" John Jones over a £175 drug debt.

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John Jones was killed in the attack in February last year

Wearing a face covering and gloves, Wolverhampton gunman Ravi Talware was immediately recognised as his killer – who calmly walked into the semi-detached house, in Caslon Crescent, in Norton, Stourbridge, opening fire.

He decided to carry out the hit himself arranging for sidekick Kevin Waldron, 41, and three youths, aged under 17, to raid the downstairs rooms for cannabis and cash he believed the dead man's younger brother Sebastian Jones kept at the property.

John Jones and his twin brother Paul were known locally as the Gummy Twins. John's killers were all convicted on Thursday.

Talware, from Bushbury, blasted drug addict John, 36, at point blank range in the chest with a sawn-off shotgun during the incident on February 25 last year.

From left; Ravi Talware, Kevin Waldron and Scott Garrington. Photos: West Midlands Police.

But despite being positively identified by the victim's father, David Jones, and friend Justin Foxall, who were present, Talware insisted during the six-week trial at Wolverhampton Crown Court, that it was not him and the witnesses had got it wrong.

He had been to the house previously and supplied the victim with Class A drugs. Talware even spoke to frail David, who asked him: "Are you going to shoot me too?"

Talware apparently replied: "I'm not going to shoot you, David."

While he was carrying out his deadly task up upstairs, the youths burst into a downstairs room occupied by Sebastian Jones whom two of the youths attacked with knives, resulting in wounds to his neck and back. They admitted arming themselves and claimed they only attacked him because they thought the 26-year-old was going to hurt them.

The scene in Caslon Crescent, Norton

In a search of the front room they found around £1,200 in cash but not the cannabis stash which officers investigating the crime later discovered when they searched the garden.

After the attack, all six left the scene in the stolen Renault Laguna and Range Rover they arrived in, with the adults at the wheel. A third man, fixer Scott Garrington, 51, did not go the house, but made arrangements for transport and provided a meeting point for the enterprise.

Defence counsel for the the youths, at least one of whom did not attend mainstream school, claimed they had been manipulated by Talware to participate in the raid and should not be blamed for what happened.

'Gummy Twins' John and Paul Jones in their schooldays

Talware, 32, of Cavalier Circus, Bushbury, Wolverhampton; Waldron, 41, of Leonard Road in Wollaston, and Garrington, 51, of Bridgnorth Road in Wollaston, were found guilty of murder, possession of a shotgun, possession of bladed articles and perverting the course of justice.

The youths, two aged 17 and one aged 16, were convicted of manslaughter, wounding, and possession of an imitation firearm as well as possession of bladed articles. They cannot be named for legal reasons.

The verdicts were returned by jurors at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday. They are due to be sentenced in June.

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