Carl Campbell murder: How 'fake watch robbery’ led to drive-by killing
It was a drive-by shooting brazenly carried out in the middle of the afternoon right outside a pub packed with Christmas revellers, and all over a fake watch. Everything about this killing was unusual.
Punters had been enjoying themselves on a Christmas Bank Holiday but the jovial atmosphere was soon shattered by the sound of gunfire.
In a busy town centre in broad daylight, three men in a 4x4 pulled up alongside a Ford Fiesta stopped at traffic lights. Seconds later five shots were fired into it.
They had come to kill Carl Campbell and they would succeed.
The father-of-one, from Low Hill, Wolverhampton, was sat in the passenger seat and struck in the face by one of the bullets.
Customers from The Strollers pub in West Bromwich entered into what could have been a scene from a movie.
The Fiesta was stationary, its back window shattered by gunfire, and the stricken Mr Campbell was bleeding heavily on the ground. He was pronounced dead a short time later.
By this time, the three attackers were speeding through the streets of West Bromwich, desperate to put as much distance between themselves and the crime, which had been captured clearly on CCTV, as it would have been in any other town centre in 21st century Britain.
More footage showed how they had hunted Mr Campbell down after spotting him in a car park in Victoria Street, a short distance from where the shooting happened.
They followed the Fiesta from a safe distance before seizing their moment to strike when the car stopped at traffic lights.
The footage, played during the trial, showed five puffs of smoke as the bullets were fired. A terrified motorist waiting in front of the Fiesta made a hasty getaway as it became clear what was happening behind.
Gunman Mohammed Humza, just 19 at the time, driver Vikesh Chauhan, 24, and Jaspal Rai, 25, had exacted their revenge for an alleged robbery two weeks earlier.
Birmingham Crown Court was told Chauhan was sitting in his car having just completed a cannabis deal, when Mr Campbell emerged from the darkness and wrestled what appeared to be a £5,000 Cartier watch from his wrist, a watch that belonged to Humza. However, sources close to the case revealed the watch was thought to be a fake.
Aside from this incident, the court heard, Mr Campbell and his attackers were not known to each other. This was not the result of a feud that had been simmering for months but a strike back over a single incident.
And the three men were apparently so consumed with rage over the theft, they were prepared to kill.
But if some rudimentary planning had gone into covering their tracks before the killing - the use of a stolen car, wearing gloves - there appeared to be no clear strategy for how they would get away with it. They didn't even worry about having the cover of darkness.
The Audi Q5 the bullets were fired from was abandoned in nearby Kiniths Crescent. The killers were desperate to get off the main road but unwittingly pulled into a cul-de-sac and decided it was too risky to turn back and continued on foot.
It was the beginning of the end. Soon after the three were spotted by a patrolling police officer who had been warned to be on the lookout for anything suspicious.
Humza and Chauhan were caught in just minutes. Rai managed to escape to Belgium but was extradited around a week later. The Smith and Wesson revolver used to kill Mr Campbell was found in a nearby garden, having been hastily discarded.
Initially, all three claimed they had not planned to kill Mr Campbell, who had grown up in West Bromwich before moving to Wolverhampton.
They admitted being in the car at the time but Humza said he had only meant to 'frighten' the victim by firing the gun. Driver Chauhan claimed to know nothing of any revenge plot and said he was simply driving around the town centre when his friend Humza ordered him to pull up next to the Fiesta.
But during the trial, as the weight of the evidence built up against him, Humza changed his plea and admitted he was guilty of murder. The other two defendants maintained their innocence.
But the jury decided it was inconceivable Chauhan was just out for a drive around the town centre, as he had claimed, and knew nothing about the attack before it happened. They reached the same conclusion of Rai.
The three conspirators were today starting a life sentence behind bars.
