A COVENTRY man has been found guilty for his part in a murder plot in Birmingham which left a man fighting for his life with five gunshot wounds.
Elijah Stokes, 38, of Whoberley Avenue, Earlsdon, was convicted of conspiracy to murder the man, who owed money to a high-level UK drug dealer currently living in Dubai.
Two others, Craig Miller, 37, of Epsom, Surrey, and Connor Palmer, 40, of Surrey, were also convicted of conspiracy to murder the man for their involvement in the plot.
Birmingham Crown Court heard how Palmer and Miller and another man formed a group which was paid £100,00 by the high-level drug dealer to kill their victim.
After the three men had been given the money, the group paid a gunman £40,000 to carry out the murder, with Stokes arranging a car and a gun to be delivered to the hired hitman.
In May 2020, the victim’s partner opened the door to their home in the Sheldon area of Birmingham to find a man in a Tesco jacket, wearing a high-vis vest.
The shooter asked if she was ‘expecting a delivery’ and said: “He’s here, isn’t he” before walking into the house and opening fire at the Sheldon man.
The victim was shot five times and was taken to hospital where he was left fighting for his life, but survived.
A young child was in the house at the time but was not injured.
In the weeks after the murder plot, the high-level dealer told Miller he wanted another man to be killed.
The drug dealer sent a photo with the caption ‘That’s him’, to which Miller replied ‘Clips going in his head’.
Despite the second murder never taking place, Miller was also found guilty on another count of conspiracy to murder.
The messages were found on an EncroChat phone belonging to Palmer. EncroChat was an encrypted global communication service used exclusively by criminals.
In 2020, an international law enforcement team cracked the company’s encryption, allowing messages between organised crime figures, including those behind the Sheldon shooting, to be read by police.
All will be sentenced at a later date.
Det Insp Gemma Currie said: “The messages we uncovered as part of this investigation make for truly chilling reading and are like something from a movie.
“It was a miracle that the victim of the shooting in Sheldon survived. It was thanks to the EncroChat breakthrough that we were unable to unravel this conspiracy to murder.
“The gang thought that they were able to communicate securely about their murderous plans, but thanks to the international law enforcement community, we were able to show exactly what they were planning and how they planned it.”
The UK’s response to the takedown of EncroChat was called Operation Venetic and was led by the National Crime Agency.
