Trio guilty of wounding after man ‘miraculously’ survives shooting

Three men have been found guilty of wounding after a man ‘miraculously’ survived when he was shot to the chest.

Samuel Adesanya was blasted at a house in Salford. Three men, Tyler Harrison, 20, James Gregory, 20, and Jacob Humphreys, 21, have been convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm following a three week trial at Manchester Crown Court. They were acquitted of the more serious offence of attempted murder.

They were among the seven men caught on CCTV footage seized by police. The trio all denied involvement and did not give evidence at their trial. Sentencing has been scheduled for January 16 next year.

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"In the evening of May 26 this year, a black car pulled up outside a house in Little Hulton," prosecutor David Temkin KC told their trial. "The car contained a number of males. They were all dressed in black. They had their hoods up. Some of them carried weapons and one of them carried a gun.

"The males walked through the garden and up the drive and they began smashing windows. It was a noisy and shocking scene. Inside that house there was a family, including four young children. Luckily, the young children were all upstairs.

"There were three adults in the house, two were members of the family. One was a visitor. The visitor's name was Samuel Adesanya, a 20-year-old man. Samuel Adesanya was shot in the chest. The gunman was in very close proximity to Samuel Adesanya when he pulled the trigger."

Mr Temkin said Mr Adesanya was standing inside the house near the front door, visible through a pane of glass. "All that separated Samuel Adesanya from the gunman was that pane of glass," the prosecutor added. "The gunman pulled the trigger at close range and aimed it directly at Samuel Adesanya's chest.

"The bullet pierced the glass and entered Samuel Adesanya's body in his upper right chest. The gunman and the other males then hastily made their way away from the scene."

Mr Temkin said Mr Adesanya was rushed to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, adding: "Miraculously, Samuel Adesanya survived. He has not assisted the police with their investigation, nor have the other people who were in the house."

Mr Adesanya spent a week undergoing treatment in hospital before he was discharged. "There was no exit wound," the prosecutor said of the bullet that hit Mr Adesanya.

"That meant the bullet was still in him. It remained lodged in his chest. As far as we know, it's still there. Miraculously, he stabilised very quickly. The medics were then able to confirm that he was going to live."

A black Vauxhall Insignia was used by the offenders to arrive at the scene of the shooting. About half an hour later, firefighters were called to a 'quiet residential street' in Little Hulton to reports of a car on fire.

The subsequent investigation showed that the car was a black Vauxhall Insignia. The blaze was started deliberately, Mr Temkin said. The car had been driven on false number plates, and had been stolen from Hale about a month earlier.

Mr Gregory was seen on CCTV carrying the false number plates which were found on the Insignia. Mr Temkin said the prosecution alleged that the three defendants were recognised on CCTV footage collected by police.

A total of seven men - dressed in all black - were seen on such video footage, Mr Temkin said, three of whom he said were Harrison, Gregory and Humphreys. "The prosecution say that the three of them were all involved in that shooting," he told the jury.

"The prosecution cannot say who held the gun or who pulled the trigger. But the prosecution do say these three men were involved, they knew what was going to happen. They intended that death would result."

The gun used in the shooting was discovered by police a month later. Mr Temkin said: “On June 28 this year police officers had reason to visit an address in Farnworth. That address was not particularly far from the home address of some of these defendants.

“It is a house, at the time it was separated into two separate flats. The two flats shared the back garden. There was an outbuilding, it was full of junk. Amongst the junk there were two sofas. Police found that in one of them there was a neatly cut tear.

“The police searched inside the cushions of the sofa. They pulled out a number of black bags containing cash. But more significantly they pulled out an orange bag, a Sainsbury’s bag. That bag didn’t contain cash, it contained a gun. It contained live ammunition.

“The firearm was loaded and ready to go.” Mr Temkin said that tests were carried out on the weapon and it was found to operate ‘normally’. A bullet casing found at the scene of the shooting was analysed, which led to the ‘conclusive determination’ that it was the same weapon.

Following 23 hours and 20 minutes of deliberations, jurors found each of the defendants not guilty of attempted murder. They found them guilty by a majority of 10 to 2 of an alternate count of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Harrison, (23/09/04), of Wigan; Gregory, (02/06/04), of Salford; and Humphreys, (03/05/03), of Wigan; are due to be sentenced on January 16, with a mention hearing set for December 18. They were each remanded into custody.