Knife killer Douane Brown facing life behind bars for Smethwick shop queue murder
A father of four was facing life in jail today after being found guilty of murdering another man in a queue at a Black Country Bureau de Change.
Douane Brown had a long running feud with Horace Williams and snapped when the pair met by chance at the shop in Cape Hill, Smethwick, that was also an internet café.
Words were exchanged as they stared at each other and then the defendant plunged a knife into the neck of the 36 year-old Mr Williams before calmly walking to his nearby car on April 16.
The victim staggered out into the street where he bled to death in minutes despite the valiant efforts of passersby and paramedics.
Witnesses later told police: "It was like a scene out of a horror movie."
Meanwhile Brown from Bickington Road, Bartley Green, booked a flight to Jamaica that took off from Gatwick Airport two days later.
He bought an extra luggage allowance indicating he intended to stay there for some time.
But the 39 year old missed the plane.
He was arrested the night before the flight by police who spotted him in Kendrick Way, West Bromwich, at the wheel of the same Ford Focus in which he left the scene of the stabbing.
Brown denied murder but was unanimously found guilty by the Birmingham Crown Court jury after a five day trial.
Judge Mark Wall QC told him that he would be sentenced today (TUES).
The court had heard how Brown left the Bureau de Change 40 seconds after first spotting Mr Williams but returned four minutes afterwards which was when the pair had the face to face confrontation that ended in murder.
Eighteen seconds later Brown pulled the knife from his pocket and stabbed the other man after being heard to say: 'Why are you staring at me'.
The defendant then walked out of the shop and left the scene in a Ford Focus with his two cousins who had been waiting outside for him.
Mr Williams followed Brown outside clutching his neck and leaving a trail of blood from the single wound that severed his jugular vein and carotid artery which within minutes led to his death.
The attack was captured by CCTV cameras at the shop. Police soon knew the registration number of the vehicle in which Brown escaped from the scene and found him driving it in the nick of time.
Just hours later he would have boarded the flight to Jamaica he had booked from Gatwick Airport and could have flown out beyond the reach of British justice.
