Four men guilty of attempted murder and firearms charges after Wolverhampton shooting as driver and girlfriend cleared
Four men have been found guilty of attempted murder and firearms charges and another cleared by a jury concerning the shooting of a man in Wolverhampton in 2024.
Their 45-year-old male victim was blasted with a shotgun in Minerva Lane off Lower Horseley Fields in Wolverhampton on September 18, 2024.
Richard Beckles, aged 45, of Wavertree Close, Telford; Khyle Gayle aged 32, of Greenford House, Birmingham; Cleo Johnson, aged 40, of Sparrows Forge Drive, Walsall; and Constantine Campbell, aged 52, of Puddlers Drive, Tipton, were found guilty of attempted murder and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Michael Soledolu, aged 34, of Walmead Croft, Birmingham, was cleared of all charges after telling the jurors he was just giving his co-defendants a lift and had no idea he was part of an assassination plot.
The victim had been drinking at The Harp, Walsall Street, before the shooting and during the evening the victim's tyres had also been slashed to prevent him
After the verdicts Soledolu was the target of the ire of the defendants who had been found guilty and was led away from the dock with a security officer with instructions not let the men near one another.
Beckles girlfriend Claire Evans, 42, Wavertree Close, Telford, who he woke up and asked her to give Johnson a lift in the early hours, was cleared by the jury of assisting an offending after maintaining she had no idea what had happened before she agreed to the nocturnal favour.
The verdicts were delivered in front of a packed courtroom at Wolverhampton Crown Court and Judge Jonathon Gosling KC decided to sentence the guilty men immediately after the jury completed their work.
The jury took 7 hours 21 minutes deliberating the verdicts after a five week trial which was held due to a trial being abandoned last year due to over running before jurors had holidays booked.