http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/3266337.stm

Last Updated: Thursday, 13 November, 2003, 12:18 GMT






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Four in court over shootings








The girls were shot on 2 JanuaryThe brother of Charlene Ellis is one of four men who have appeared in court charged with the murders of the teenager and that of her friend Letisha Shakespeare.
The girls were shot dead outside a New Year's party in Birmingham.
Marcus Junior Ellis, 23, from Winson Green; Michael Gregory, 22, from Ladywood, Birmingham; Rodrigo Simms, 19, from Smethwick; and Nathan Antonio Martin, 24, from Smethwick, appeared at the city's magistrates' court on Thursday.
Their case was committed to Birmingham Crown Court for a hearing on 20 November and the men were remanded in custody.
They have also been charged with the attempted murders of Sophie Ellis, Cheryl Shaw and Leon Harris.
College friends 17-year-old Letisha and Charlene, 18, were shot outside a party at a hairdressing salon in Aston in the early hours of 2 January.
Charlene's twin sister Sophie and 17-year-old Cheryl Shaw were also injured in the incident in Birchfield Road.
A West Midlands police spokesman said on Thursday: "The four men are each charged with two murders and three attempted murders."
The mothers of the two teenagers have started a campaign against gun violence.
Letisha's mother, Marcia, and Charlene's mother, Beverley, travelled to New York to see how the problem of gun crime is tackled there.

the question have they got teh right people or have they just made the arrests and charges to say to the wider uk audience they are proactive. will the cases go down like stephen lawrence and many unknown cases. blkphonecall

Does any1 know how the two surving girls are doing. I saw on eof them in a wheelchair on TV and I was wondering whether that was temp or permanent

SO AM I TO ASSUME THAT NOONE HAS A CLUE

Families who have lost loved ones to gun violence across the country were united in an emotional service at Birmingham Cathedral followed by a concert in Victoria Square.

The church's walls were lined with photographs of young victims of gun crime in a service for peace organised by Mothers Against Guns and Families for Peace.

One mother Patsy McK-ie, whose 20-year-old son Dorrie, was shot in Manchester four years ago, said: "We are all paying for what happens in our community, not just the mothers who have lost their sons.

"We are all responsible. Gangs are formed because there is something missing in children's lives.

"We must show them that we love them and we must be an example to them all."

The second annual service for peace was organised by Mothers Against Guns chairman Gleen Reid, from Birmingham, whose only son Corey was shot dead in Handsworth four years ago.

It was also attended by Beverley Thomas, mother of 18-year-old Charlene Ellis, who was shot dead in Aston alongside her friend Letisha Shakespeare 18 months ago outside a New Year's Day party.

Bishop for Birmingham The Rt Rev John Sentamu praised the work of Mothers Against Guns and gave an impromptu lament on his own drum which he brought with him.

Bishop Joe Aldred, chairman of the Council for Black-led Churches backed Deputy Lord Mayor Coun Mahmood Hussain's view when he said that God needed to be back at the centre of communities.

The service was led by the Rev Daniel Bowen, vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Birchfield Road, which is only yards from where Letisha and Charlene were killed.

A free concert of rap, blues, reggae and Gospel choirs involving hundreds of local youngsters who had auditioned to take part, was held in Victoria Square on Saturday night.

[align=left]Awitness in the Aston shootings trial said he was “high on crack cocaine� when he allegedly told police that a defendant had confessed.[/align]

[align=left]Jonathan James, who is giving evidence under a false name, denied saying he had a conversation with Rodrigo Simms in which Simms confessed.[/align]

[align=left]Mr James also told Leicester Crown Court he could not remember making a 999 call on January 4, 2003 – two days after Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare-were murdered – telling officers he knew who had killed the girls.[/align]

[align=left]Timothy Raggatt QC, prosecuting, asked the witness about the conversation with “Sunny�, which is Simms’ alleged street name, shortly after the shootings.[/align]

[align=left]Mr James told the jury: “It was about two girls, strippers.�[/align]

[align=left]Mr Raggatt then read statements to Mr James that he had made on September 12, 2003, while he was in custody in a Birmingham police station for two robberies.[/align]

[align=left]The statement read: “I will tell you of a conversation I had a day after the shooting of the girls in Aston.[/align]

[align=left]“It was at a house in Winson Green. Sunny came into the kitchen and he was shaking.[/align]

[align=left]“He said: ‘It is all ******, it is all ******’.[/align]

[align=left]“You said, ‘What?’ And he said, ‘What, the girls, Dinjal, the girls’.[/align]

[align=left]“You said, ‘What, man?’.�[/align]

[align=left]“He said, ‘we ****** up, me Dinjal and the man’.�[/align]

[align=left]Mr Raggatt asked the witness: “Do you agree you said and signed this statement?�[/align]

[align=left]The witness replied: “It was signed by me while I was high on crack cocaine, heroin, Es, anything else I could get my hands on.�[/align]

[align=left]Mr Raggatt asked: “You were supposed to have asked him, ‘what you done’?[/align]

[align=left]“To which he said, ‘we ****** up’.[/align]

[align=left]“You suggested to him ‘why didn’t you get out of the car and get in the alleyway and do it?’. To which he said, ‘it just happened, it just happened’.�[/align]

[align=left]Mr Raggatt asked: “Why did you sign all this if it wasn’t true?�[/align]

[align=left]Mr James replied: “I wanted to get out of the police station.�[/align]

[align=left]THE CHARGES[/align]

[align=left]Marcus Ellis, 24, of Devonshire Avenue, Winson Green;
Michael Gregory, 23, of Ryland Street, Ladywood;
Nathan Martin, 26, of South Road, Smethwick;
Rodrigo Simms, 20, of Whitehouse Drive, Smetwhick and
Tafarwa Beckford, 22, of Duchess Road, Ladywood, all deny two counts of murder and three of attempted murder. [/align]

[align=left]Jermaine Carty, 24, of Chain Walk, Lozells, denies two counts of possessing a firearm on the night of the shooting.[/align]

Is he the key witness Kennedy?? Does this mess up the whole case against the implicated ones?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...ds/4361785.stm







Four guilty of New Year shootings







The men were found guilty after a four-month trialFour men have been found guilty of the murder of two teenage girls shot dead in Birmingham at New Year 2003.
Marcus Ellis, 24, Michael Gregory, 22, Nathan Martin, 25 and Rodrigo Simms, 20, denied two counts of murder and three of attempted murder.
Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17, were shot outside a hairdresser's in Aston on 2 January in a botched gang attack, the jury heard.
The men will be sentenced at Leicester Crown Court on Monday.
A fifth defendant, Jermaine Carty, was cleared of possessing a firearm on the night of the shooting.







This isn't about winners or losers, this is about Letisha, Charlene, Sophia and Cheryl

Det Supt Dave Mirfield
Ellis, Gregory, Martin and Simms were also convicted of three counts of attempting to murder Charlene Ellis's twin sister Sophie, and their friend Cheryl Shaw.
Ellis, Gregory, Martin were additionally convicted of attempting to murder another party-goer, Leon Harris.
Simms was cleared of that charge.
All four men will be sentenced at the same court on Monday morning.
Revenge attack
The girls had gone to a party at a hair salon in Birchfield Road, Aston, on January 2, 2003.
While they were outside with friends, the killers drove by and fired a sub-machine gun, hitting both girls several times.
Charlene's twin sister Sophie, their cousin Cheryl Shaw, and friend Leon Harris were injured.






The girls died outside a hairdressers in January 2003
The prosecution claimed the shootings were a "botched" revenge attack by one rival gang on another.
Speaking outside Leicester Crown Court, Marcia Shakespeare, 38, mother of 17-year-old Letisha said: "Justice has been served. We are happy - it has been a long ordeal, it was the right result."
Bev Thomas, Charlene Ellis's mother, told a press conference: "There were people there that saw and became blind and heard and became deaf.
"Charlene will be sadly missed.
'In our memories'
"Today for me can be tomorrow for you. Don't wait for it to reach your doorstep."
Det Supt Dave Mirfield, who led the investigation said the families involved had shown great dignity.
He said: "Today justice has been done. This isn't about winners or losers, this is about Letisha, Charlene, Sophia and Cheryl.
"We are all delighted at this result but we must never forget the girls, they are always in our memories.
'Witness intimidation'
"The family have shown great, great, dignity. I would like to praise them.
"I would also like to praise the jury and the team involved in this difficult investigation."
The trial has been marred by serious and consistent attempts to intimidate key witnesses, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The CPS and the trial judge took unprecedented steps to ensure that witnesses felt able to give evidence.
Voices disguised
A number of legal firsts were set in the way the trial was conducted.
Some witnesses were given pseudonyms, had their voices electronically disguised and were hidden from the defendants in the courtroom.
Their true identities were not revealed to the defence.
The trial judge took advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Court of Appeal before proceeding with these arrangements.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/w...ds/4010485.stm







Victims of 'transferred malice'







By Chris Summers
BBC News Website
Four men have been convicted of the murder of two teenage girls in Birmingham. The girls were accidentally shot when the gang targeted rivals outside a late-night party.
Innocent victims of a gang war, Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis were simply standing too close to the intended targets of the latest shooting.






Cheryl Shaw, Charlene Ellis, Sophie Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare
The legal term to describe what happened is "transferred malice". It means those responsible can still be charged with murder - even if they had meant to kill a member of a rival gang instead.
The murders of Letisha and Charlene, aged 17 and 18, were the result of a violent feud between the Johnson Crew and the Burger Bar Boys.
Click here to view the scene
On 6 December 2002, a month before the girls' killings, 24-year-old Yohanne Martin was shot dead as he sat in his Mercedes in West Bromwich High Street.
Yohanne - whose street name was "13" - was a key member of the Burger Bar Boys, whose territory included nearby Smethwick and Handsworth. The Johnson Crew were based in Aston and Lozells.
Yohanne's brother Nathan - whose street name was "23" - believed the Johnson Crew were behind the killing - in particular a man who can only be called "Mr X" for legal reasons.
Plotted revenge
Nathan Martin began planning his revenge.
He had found a willing recruit in Michael Gregory, whose sister Leona had been Yohanne's girlfriend and had a child with him.






Timetable for tragedy

6 Dec 2002: Yohanne Martin is shot dead in West Bromwich
31 Dec 2002: Yohanne's brother, Nathan Martin, and other members of the Burger Bar Boys buy a red Ford Mondeo
2 Jan 2003: The Mondeo, containing Martin, Michael Gregory and Marcus Ellis, drives up to the party in Aston and the gang open fire on partygoers, killing the two girls
Aug 2003: Tafarwa Beckford survives a shooting in Winson Green
Nov 2003: Martin, Gregory, Ellis, Rodrigo Simms and Beckford are arrested
Nov 2004: The trial begins at Leicester Crown Court
Feb 2005: Beckford is acquitted
Mar 2005: Verdict
Martin also recruited Marcus Ellis, another gang member known as "E-Man", who was coincidentally the half brother of Charlene Ellis.
Gregory - known as Chunk because of his size - was given the job of co-ordinating the hit.
He bought a pay-as-you-go mobile phone and used it to negotiate the purchase of the getaway car, a red Ford Mondeo, from a dealer in Northampton.
On the afternoon of New Year's Eve 2002 the car was brought back to Birmingham and a window tinter hired to darken the vehicle's windows.
The gang did not want witnesses to be able to get a good view of them - a motive the tinter was unaware of.
Opportunity for revenge
All the gang needed now was an opportunity, and it arrived in the early hours of 2 January 2003.
Another member of the Burger Bar gang, Rodrigo "Sonny" Simms, was at a party at the Uniseven salon in Aston, which his cousin Selina owned.
The prosecution claimed that Simms spotted several members of the Johnson Crew at the party and guided the killers into position just after 4am.






The shooting was to avenge the murder of Yohanne Martin
Earlier that night Jermaine Carty had been "bigging it up" in Rosie O'Brien's nightclub in Solihull, taunting the Burger Bar Boys.
Carty was named in court by witnesses as being in the rival Johnson Crew, although he denied being a member.
Carty was said to be one of the principal targets when the Mondeo pulled up outside the back of the salon and the attackers fired a "fusillade" of bullets at partygoers, killing the two girls and wounding two others.
The prosecution initially claimed Carty, who was uninjured, fired back at the attackers. He was cleared of possessing a firearm on the night of the shooting.
The assailants had used a Mac10 sub-machine gun, often nicknamed the "spray and pray" because its fierce recoil makes it almost impossible to aim accurately.
After making their bungled attack they drove off and a couple of hours later the getaway car was found burned out.
It was some time before Martin, Ellis, Gregory and Simms were arrested and charged with the murders.
Denials
When it came to the trial Martin admitted playing a part in buying the Mondeo but said he did not know what the car was intended for.







The shooting (of the girls) was in the headlines for weeks and weeks but my brother's death had been in the headlines for a day

Nathan MartinHe also denied being a member of the Burger Bar gang and having anything to do with the shooting, claiming he was in bed with his girlfriend at the time.
Asked why he had failed to mention his alibi he said: "It's bad what happened to them girls, but I didn't want to get involved.
"My brother had been murdered, my mum was having a very bad time, I was the only thing my family had left. I lied to protect myself and my family."
Cross examining him, Timothy Raggat QC said: "Your brother was a gangster and you are a gangster. You committed crimes together, you were inseparable."
Martin replied: "No. We were close, he was my only brother but he was trying to reform...to put it behind him, to make something of his life."
Brother of pop star
Martin had told police: "It pisses me off because the shooting (of the girls) was in the headlines for weeks and weeks but my brother's death had been in the headlines for a day."
During the trial another man, Tafarwa Beckford, was acquitted of murder on the judge's directions because the only evidence against him came from a witness, known as Mark Brown, who the judge concluded had been lying.
Beckford is the half-brother of pop star Jamelia. Another of her siblings, Cairo Beckford, was convicted of a separate murder in Birmingham last year.
For the Beckford family, like the Ellis and Shakespeare families, the gun and gang culture has brought nothing but despair and heartbreak.
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1 A red Ford Mondeo, containing three members of the Burger Bar gang, pulls into Church Hill Parade, Aston, at around 4.08am on 2 January 2003.
2 The gang's car is guided into place by Rodrigo Simms, a fellow Burger Bar member. He is the cousin of Selina Simms, who is hosting the party at the Uniseven hairdressing salon.
3 The Mondeo pulls up outside the party and the gang fire on people standing outside. Letisha Shakespeare and Charlene Ellis are killed. Charlene's sister Sophie and cousin Cheryl Shaw are injured.
4 More shots are fired at a black Audi car parked in the street. Two people inside escape injury.
5 Another fusillade is fired at a white Ford Orion containing Leon Harris. He is also unhurt.
6 The car speeds off and is found later in nearby Smethwick. It had been burnt out

just saw the itv news clip on this and they were saying the murderes lived a gangsta rap like lifestyle and showed a home video of them mc'ing....but ITV also pointed out that all rappers and mc's are not like that and showed and spoke with rapper who discussed positive lyrics and words of encouragement.