Three guilty of shooting dad dead in his garden
Rikki Berry, 36, died in hospital after the attack in Quarryside Drive, Kirkby, Knowsley, on the evening of 17 July.
Michael Smith, 27, Adam Williams, 26, and Connor Walsh, 26, were all found guilty of murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life at a hearing at Liverpool Crown Court earlier.
They will be sentenced on 18 February.
Rikki Berry died after a balacla-wearing man riding an electric bike fired four shots at him just after 18:30.
The electric bike was travelling on the pavement but in convoy was a black Seat Alteca Cupra being driven in the same direction on the road.
As the bike rider slowed down, almost to a stop, the car also came to a stop.
The car and the bike were alongside each other outside Mr Berry's partner's home, with Mr Berry in the front garden of the house.
Michael Smith fired four shots at Mr Berry, with three making contact, and Mr Berry died from a gunshot wound to his chest.
The court heard that Smith, 27, of no fixed abode, was the rider of the bike, with Adam Williams, 26, of Hamblett Crescent, St Helens, the driver of the car and Connor Walsh, 26, of Simonswood Lane, Kirkby, a passenger in the car.
Williams and Walsh were both present to oversee the killing, the court heard.
Telephone records showed the three men were in contact with each other in the run-up to the murder.
They were all together in the Cupra minutes before the shooting as they drove to conduct a recce of the scene.
After the shooting, the defendants switched off their phones and Williams left the Merseyside area.
DNA on one of the bullet casings recovered from the scene by police was found to match Walsh.
The three men were arrested and charged with murder, with all of them pleading not guilty.
Part-way through the trial, which lasted nearly four weeks, Walsh and Williams served defence statements naming Smith as the gunman.
Following this, Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence but continued to deny murder.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams of CPS Mersey-Cheshire, said: "This was a shocking, execution-style murder committed on a residential road on a summer evening in July 2024."
She said Rikki Berry was at home with his partner and young children when four shots were fired at him by Smith.
"It was only a matter of chance that no-one else was injured or killed by the gunman's actions," she added.
She said that "guns have no place in our communities" and people had a right to expect to be able to live without fear of this sort of violence happening on their doorsteps.
"Our thoughts remain with the family and friends of Rikki Berry," she added.
Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indianapolis Star
2 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
Indianapolis councilor Nick Roberts denies claims he groped 18-year-old woman against her will
Another Indianapolis city councilor is pushing back on accusations of sexual misconduct after a woman alleged that he groped her while she tried to push him away during a second date. An 18-year-old woman filed a report with Fishers police accusing City-County Council member Nick Roberts, 24, of grabbing her breasts and butt as she tried to pull away during a kiss on July 12 in downtown Fishers, according to allegations reported by Mirror Indy. Roberts, who has not been charged with a crime, denied the allegations in a Facebook video posted July 29, saying he did "absolutely nothing wrong." "I just wanted to completely deny the allegation of doing anything inappropriate," said Roberts, a Democrat. "Quite frankly, I'm not sure why this slanderous post was made about me, but it's incredibly hurtful not just to me but to my entire family and everyone who knows my character. I was raised to respect all people and I would never engage in unwanted physical contact with a woman without her consent." The allegation against Roberts — lauded by the Indiana Democratic Party as the youngest councilor to win in any major American city after his election in 2023 at just 23 years old — is the latest in a series of sexual misconduct claims made against Democrats in city and state politics. Roberts represents District 4, comprising parts of Castleton and Geist in northeast Marion County. Perhaps the most salient allegations are three women's accounts to IndyStar that Thomas Cook, a former top aide to Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett, pressured them into unwanted sexual encounters while dangling career growth before them as their superior. Two of the women have also criticized Hogsett himself for sending text messages that made them uncomfortable and allowing Cook to work as an unpaid adviser during a 2023 mayoral campaign despite his knowledge of past issues. More recently, City-County Council member Keith Graves was accused of physical and sexual assault by a woman 30 years younger than him, according to an IndyStar investigation. Council Democrats have promised to make reforms to the city's sexual harassment policies and reporting systems, including an overhaul of the human resources department and the creation of an inspector general to independently investigate alleged policy violations. Critics have said they doubt their intentions, however, after Council President Vop Osili ordered the forcible removal of one Cook accuser from a council meeting. Indy politics: Joe Hogsett wants to move past harassment scandal. Many aren't sure he can The accounts from Roberts and the woman, whom Mirror Indy did not name because she claims she's a victim of sexual assault, are aligned in some respects. But what differs starkly is their interpretation of a kiss during a second date. The two agreed to meet for brunch on July 5 after they matched on the dating app Hinge, Roberts said. Both say the first date went well, according to her text messages and comments to Mirror Indy. As they prepared to leave, Roberts hugged her and kissed her on the cheek. She later texted Roberts to say she "had a really good time" and "especially appreciate[d] the kiss on the cheek," according to Roberts. Roberts responded that she could get another "(and maybe more)" next time, by which he says he meant a kiss on the lips. Although the woman told Mirror Indy the remark made her uncomfortable, she responded, "I hope so, I'd like that :)" — meaning another kiss on the cheek. The two met in downtown Fishers a week later, on July 12, for ice cream and an evening stroll along the Nickel Plate Trail. During that walk, Roberts admits that he kissed her on the lips for a few seconds. The woman claims that Roberts pulled her off onto a side trail, where he began kissing and groping her while she pushed him away and told him to stop. He eventually loosened his grip, she said, apparently because someone walked by along the main trail. Roberts denies her account of those events, he said. He told Mirror Indy that the pair walked onto a side trail and kissed for a few seconds. He claims only to have put his hands on her hips. "While on our walk, because of those text messages, I kissed her on the lips for a few seconds," he said in a written statement reviewed by IndyStar. "During the kiss, she did not push me away or ask me to stop. If she had done either, I would have stopped immediately. We then walked for approximately another 30 minutes, and we had a conversation with nothing out of the ordinary." While Roberts described the following moments as unremarkable, the woman told Mirror Indy she was visibly shaken afterward. When they arrived back at their cars, Roberts said, "she leaned in so I could give her a kiss on her cheek and we said goodnight." The woman decided to file a police report soon after the date. Fishers police told Mirror Indy that the investigation is ongoing and refused to comment further. Roberts said he's cooperating fully with the police investigation and will continue to focus on his work as a councilor. "I have faith in the process and believe the facts will prove my innocence," Roberts said in the Facebook video, "and I remain committed toward working for our council district in the meanwhile."
6 hours ago
Louisiana GOP senator's office asked ICE to release Marine Corps veteran's wife
A Marine Corps veteran's wife has been released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention following advocacy from Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican who backs President Donald Trump's hardline immigration crackdown. Until this week, Mexican national Paola Clouatre had been one of tens of thousands of people in ICE custody as the Trump administration continues to press immigration officers to arrest 3,000 people a day suspected of being in the U.S. illegally. Emails reviewed by The Associated Press show that Kennedy's office said Friday that it put in a request for the Department of Homeland Security to release her after a judge halted her deportation order earlier that week. By Monday, she was out of a remote ICE detention center in north Louisiana and home in Baton Rouge with her veteran husband Adrian Clouatre and their two young children. Kennedy's constituent services representative, Christy Tate, congratulated Adrian Clouatre on his wife's release and thanked him for his military service. 'I am so happy for you and your family,' Tate wrote in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'God is truly great!' Kennedy's office proved 'instrumental' in engaging with the Department of Homeland Security, according to Carey Holliday, the family's attorney. Kennedy's office did not provide further comment. Another Louisiana Republican, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, also intervened recently with the Department of Homeland Security to secure the release of an Iranian mother from ICE detention following widespread outcry. The woman has lived for decades in New Orleans. Kennedy has generally been a staunch supporter of Trump's immigration policies. 'Illegal immigration is illegal — duh,' Kennedy posted on his Facebook page on July 17, amid a series of recent media appearances decrying efforts to prevent ICE officers from making arrests. In April, however, he criticized the Trump administration for mistakenly deporting a Maryland man. The Department of Homeland Security previously told The AP it considered Clouatre to be 'illegally' in the country. An email chain shared by Adrian Clouatre shows that the family's attorney reached out to Kennedy's office in early June after Paola Clouatre was detained in late May. Tate received Paola Clouatre's court documents by early July and said she then contacted ICE, according to the email exchange. On July 23, an immigration judge halted Paola Clouatre's deportation order. After Adrian Clouatre notified Kennedy's office, Tate said she 'sent the request to release' Paola Clouatre to DHS and shared a copy of the judge's motion with the agency, emails show. In an email several days later, Tate said that ICE told her it 'continues to make custody determinations on a case-by-case basis based on the specific circumstances of each case' and had received the judge's decision from Kennedy's office 'for consideration." The next working day, Paola Clouatre was released from custody. 'We will continue to keep you, your family and others that are experiencing the same issues in our prayers," Tate said in an email to Adrian Clouatre. 'If you need our assistance in the future, please contact us." Paola Clouatre had been detained by ICE officers on May 27 during an appointment related to her green card application. She had entered the country as a minor with her mother from Mexico more than a decade ago and was legally processed while seeking asylum, she, her husband and her attorney say. But Clouatre's mother later failed to show up for a court date, leading a judge to issue a deportation order against Paola Clouatre in 2018, though by then she had become estranged from her mother and was homeless. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Clouatre's release. Adrian Clouatre said he wished the agency would "actually look at the circumstances' before detaining people like his wife. 'It shouldn't just be like a blanket 'Oh, they're illegal, throw them in ICE detention.'' Reunited with her breastfeeding infant daughter and able to snuggle with her toddler son, Paola Clouatre told AP she feels like a mother again. 'I was feeling bad,' she said of detention. 'I was feeling like I failed my kids.' It will likely be a multiyear court process before Paola Clouatre's immigration court proceedings are formally closed, but things look promising, and she should be able to obtain her green card eventually, her attorney said. For now, she's wearing an ankle monitor, but still able to pick up life where she left off, her husband says. The day of her arrest in New Orleans, the couple had planned to sample some of the city's famed French pastries known as beignets and her husband says they'll finally get that chance again: 'We're going to make that day up.'
11 hours ago
Texas floods: 911 audio from county near hard-hit Kerrville shows confusion and distress
Audio recordings obtained by ABC News reveal, for the first time, some of the desperate moments faced by Hill Country residents as floodwaters raged across Texas on the Fourth of July. "We really need somebody," a caller told a dispatcher. "My boyfriend is currently stuck in a tree out on the current." Another resident said that a man was stuck "in the middle of the river." These calls are among the more than 100 dispatch audio and 911 recordings from a Texas county -- downriver from hard-hit Kerrville -- released by the City of Boerne in response to an ABC News public records request. ABC News has also requested 911 calls and dispatcher audio from Kerr County. The county has not responded to the request. Boerne handles emergency communications in Kendall County, which borders Kerr County and was also affected by the tragic flooding. Some of the recordings show apparent confusion and distress among some Kendall County residents about evacuation orders and road closures during the Fourth of July flooding. "Do I go in my pajamas? Do I take a shower first? How much time do I have?" one caller asked a dispatcher after being warned by someone patrolling her street to be prepared to evacuate. Some callers said they had heard about evacuations from social media sites, like YouTube and Facebook, but weren't sure if the orders applied to their area. In one call, a woman with a baby told the 911 operator that her house was flooding. "We can't go anywhere," she said. More than 130 people died in the July 4 flooding -- with more than 100 of the deaths occurring in Kerr County. There were nine deaths reported in Kendall County. This month, officials said the number of people believed to be missing dropped from nearly 100 to three. The recordings also provide insight into Kendall County's police response and communications with other counties. "We have located a body," a Boerne Police Department dispatcher told a Kerr County law enforcement representative. "It's definitely going to be a drowned victim or a flood victim." In another recording, a caller stated that earlier in the day, he had been just a foot away from a body on his land. The dispatcher told him that first responders were having trouble getting to his property since a road was impassable. In addition, the recordings show how emergency orders were passed from one local agency to another -- and sometimes appeared to meet resistance. In a call early on July 4, a Boerne dispatcher told another first responder that the Comfort Volunteer Fire Department in Kendall County had relayed a warning from Kerr County that the water was rising and would reach Boerne in four to six hours. "They're requesting -- no, they're stating -- that we need to close all crossings," the dispatcher said. "What? What crossings?" the other first responder on the line asked in an agitated tone. He sighed and added, "With what?" About 20 minutes later, a first responder asked Boerne Police: "Did y'all open up a call sheet for that b------- water flood stuff?" Then he clarified, "We're not on it, right?" Even as the initial rescue operations were unfolding, first responders and 911 dispatchers discussed problems with county emergency communications and response coordination. In one call, a dispatcher noted that the phone line for the Guadalupe River State Park was down. In another, a first responder called 911 to raise concerns with the local emergency operations center call sheets. "We updated and gave direction a couple of times, and it still was done a different … way by every time somebody different got on there," the first responder said. He suggested merging call sheets to better organize and unify the emergency response, to which the dispatcher replied: "That's going to be a pain." "Maybe we can go through this in the future, how we can do it differently," the first responder said at the end of the call, and the dispatcher agreed. "We all have something to bring for the after-action."
