Louis Simpson murder: Botched Wolverhampton drug deal was too good to be true
The deal seemed too good to be true - and it was - but Herman 'Louis' Simpson didn't realise until it was too late.
By the time it dawned on the 46-year-old that he had been double crossed by Dylan Jackson, he was seconds away from death.
His 20-year-old killer - who was yesterday found guilty of murdering Mr Simpson at his home in Compton Road, Wolverhampton - also had a long-term grudge against him, believing he had given drugs to his mother.
Jackson confessed to police: "I didn't like him because he obviously sold drugs to my mum in the past but I was broke and that is the only reason this happened."
Jackson, of Crosby Close, Whitmore Reans, killed Mr Simpson in a drug deal gone wrong on April 13. Mr Simpson thought he was getting cut-price heroin but in fact was given a packet full of ash by Jackson. After he realised that, violence broke out.
One West Midlands Police detective said: "There was naivety on both sides.
"Louis was cock-a-hoop at the deal he had been offered. It was obviously made to look a bargain so that he would take the bait. He went for it hook, line and sinker thinking that he had found the goose that lays the golden egg.
"Jackson was so short of money he lost all rational thought and tried to get away with a crime that was not very clever in its planning. He thought Louis would be a soft touch."
The two men lived in the same area and moved in similar circles. They knew of each other through mutual friends but were not close. Mr Simpson had the phone number of Jackson under a false name in the memory of one of his two mobile phones.
There was a suggestion that the younger man had been to the flat six months earlier but he insisted he had never been there before.
They met by chance in the street around a fortnight before the stabbing during which it became apparent that both were still involved in the world of drugs. Regular phone contact between the pair started on March 27 and reached its height on April 13, when there were around a dozen calls between them before Jackson booked a taxi under a false name from Crosby Close, where he was living in a one-room bedsit at the time. He was driven to a random address in Haden Hill, a street close to Compton Road and Mr Simpson's ground-floor flat.
Jackson told the cab driver he would be back in a couple of minutes and ordered him to wait but never returned after his planned scam went horribly wrong.
The victim - who had an alarming array of weapons at his home - had hidden a .22 bolt action sawn-off rifle with silencer under the coffee table shortly before Jackson arrived for the hand over. There was around £2,500 cash on the table.
Mr Simpson realised the package supposedly holding the cut price £3,000 heroin deal was too small to hold the drugs, despite being bulked up with layers of cling film.
He said there was something wrong with the deal and moved, as if to get out of his seat by the table. The trial centered around exactly what happened next.
Jackson insisted that the other man pulled out the gun from its hiding place and pointed it at him, prompting the knife attack in which the other man was killed. "I panicked," insisted the knifeman, who also denied bringing the weapon with him to the meeting.
David Wynter and Lisa Adcock - two friends who were visiting the victim at the time - were adamant that Mr Simpson did not touch the concealed weapon which was only exposed when the table was moved during the struggle between the pair which ended with Jackson fleeing with the gun and money, leaving the victim to bleed to death in minutes.
The killer had spent less than five minutes at the address and was captured on CCTV jogging down nearby Rupert Road and walking down Westland Avenue talking on a mobile as Mr Wynter called the ambulance service. The getaway route was discovered during a police trawl of security cameras in the area.
Detectives quickly discovered who they were looking for because Miss Adcock knew the mother of Jackson and recognised him when she walked into the living room from the kitchen as the two men fought.
He went on the run and was not arrested until 16 days later when he was picked up in the street while making a phone call in Julian Road, Bath. He had two wraps of cocaine on him.
Mr Simpson had traces of both heroin and cocaine in his body. Experts said that he could have been suffering from the effects of one or both of these drugs when he met his death. He never even touched the package of 'drugs' that cost him his life. The only finger prints on the parcel were those of Jackson.
Police have no idea where the killer spent his time on the run. It is presumed he was either sleeping rough or staying with a succession of friends. Detectives were also unable to find any links between him and Bath and it remains a mystery why he headed for that city - a move that proved to be his undoing.
