Man cleared of killing Stafford-man Carl Tindall is jailed as part of cocaine empire
A drug dealer jailed for his part in a huge cocaine racket had previously been cleared of beating a man, dumping him at the roadside and leaving him to die.
Jamie Sleigh has just started a three-year seven-month prison sentence after police smashed five narcotics gangs across the Midlands.
The 37 year-old, of St John’s Road, Cannock, was jailed last week at Stafford Crown Court as part of the 23-strong network of drug dealers.
But it can now be revealed he was acquitted of killing Stafford man Carl Tindall last year.
Mr Tindall suffered serious head injuries during an alleged assault in Plant Crescent, Stafford, on August 22, 2015.
Police believe he was then taken alive in a car and driven to Cull Avenue, also in Stafford, where he was left by the side of the road.
A member of the public found him unresponsive near its junction with Weston Road.
Four people were cleared by a jury over his death. Sleigh was found not guilty of manslaughter.
Mr Tindall, 35, had a fractured skull and suffered a brain haemorrhage and died two days later in hospital.
Three others, including the victim’s girlfriend Sarah Hurmson, were not found to have helped Sleigh by lying to police about what happened.
Hurmson, aged 36, of Greig Court, Heath Hayes, along with her sister Louise Hurmson, aged 32, of Avenue Road, Heath Hayes, and her boyfriend Anthony Boddison, 26, from St Peter’s Gardens, Stafford, were cleared of assisting an offender.
The jury deliberated for more than a day before reaching a decision following a three-week trial at Stafford Crown Court.
During the trial, the jury heard violence had unfolded at Plant Crescent just after 8.30pm on August 22, 2015, when Mr Tindall, of Brocton, near Stafford, sustained the fatal injuries having hit his head off the ground.
He went to confront Boddison over a rumour he had slept with his girlfriend Sarah Hurmson, the jury was told. But when Mr Tindall arrived he was assaulted causing him to fall and hit his head.
The prosecution alleged that it was Sleigh who had punched Mr Tindall. The court heard how it was in fact Sleigh who had been having a casual sexual relationship with Sarah Hurmson, not Boddison.
Sleigh, Boddison, and the Hurmson sisters told police it was Boddison who ‘pushed’ Mr Tindall in self defence at Plant Crescent causing him to fall back and hit his head.
However, Sleigh and Boddison admitted putting the unconscious victim in a car before leaving him in Cull Avenue, near County Hospital.
Mr Tindall’s family are offering a £10,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in the case.
