Man found guilty of killing his friend
A suspected gang member was this afternoon found guilty of the manslaughter of the teenage friend he shot dead while "fooling around" with a loaded gun.
Raheem Hines-Thomas was blasted in the chest with a shotgun fired accidentally as members of the Park Village Crew plotted revenge against a rival Wolverhampton gang.
Nathan Hamilton admitted holding the gun when it went off but claimed he had not realised it was gun until after the fatal shot had been fired. It was allegedly concealed by plastic bags and fired as he tried to unwrap it.
But today a jury convicted him of manslaughter after almost four hours of deliberations.
Hamilton, who was found not guilty of possessing the firearm with intent to endanger life, was remanded in custody by Mr Justice MacDuff for reports and will be sentenced after Easter.
Hamilton's younger brother Parisse had been beaten up in the street by members of the rival Firetown crew from neighbouring Heath Town earlier in the day of the shooting.
Hamilton and five other men gathered in the bedroom of 17-year-old Raheem Hines-Thomas in Orslow Walk, Park Village, on March 19 last year.
The teenager was blasted in the chest at close range while sitting on a bed opposite Hamilton and taken by private car to New Cross Hospital where he was certified dead.
Royal Mail worker Hamilton, a 29-year-old father of two from Elmhurst Court, Wednesbury has no previous convictions. The shot gun has never been found.
