Jaskaran Kang: Two guilty of murdering man in stab attack
Two teenagers have been found guilty of the murder of a shopkeeper who was knifed for his haul of cannabis and left to bleed to death.
Jaskaran Kang was repeatedly stabbed after the masked intruders, carrying Rambo and Zombie knives, kicked in the front door to his flat during the early hours of January 6 last year.
The 24-year-old died within minutes of the ‘ferocious attack’ at his home in Stourbridge Road, Dudley.
The victim and and his flatmate Alexander Clarke had been dealing cannabis from Dudley Wines and More, the shop below the flat that Mr Kang ran with his brother, the trial at Birmingham Crown Court had heard.
The gang demanded money and ‘food’ – referring to cannabis – when they burst into the flat.
Michael Cunningham and Joshua Campbell forced Mr Clarke to fetch the cannabis, holding a blade held to his throat and stomach as he retrieved the drugs from the loft.
Meanwhile there was a confrontation between Mr Kang, who had been asleep in the living room, and James Peake and Dontay Ellis which spilled into the communal hallway outside the first-floor flat.
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The victim bled profusely from a three-inch thrust into his upper thigh, which pierced his femoral artery. It is not known which of the pair dealt the fatal blow.
The robbers believed there was also between £30,000 and £50,000 at the address, it emerged, but fled only with the box of cannabis.
They got away in a stolen Ford Focus car later found burnt out near the Crooked House pub in Dudley.
Police tracked them down using CCTV footage, DNA found on their clothing and mobile phone evidence.
The gang claimed they had initially intended to buy cannabis from Mr Kang and thought he was out when they broke into the flat.
The court heard they were all carrying knives including Zombie, Rambo and machete-type blades and a Samurai sword.
Murder trial verdicts
The court heard they were all carrying knives including Zombie, Rambo and machete-type blades and a Samurai sword.
Ellis, 19, from Central Drive, Lower Gornal, and Peake, aged 18, from Southgate Way, Dudley, were found guilty of murder.
Campbell, aged 18, from King Edmund Street, Dudley, was acquitted of murder, as was Cunningham, aged 18, of Coalway Road, Wolverhampton.
Reggie Salmon, aged 21, from Stourbridge Road, Dudley, said to have bought drugs from Mr Kang in the lead-up to the attack, was found not guilty of manslaughter and conspiracy to rob.
Cunningham and Peake admitted conspiracy to rob, while Ellis and Campbell were found guilty.
Tyrone Johnson, aged 18, from Malthouse Drive, Dudley, who had been with the robbers earlier that night, was found not guilty of manslaughter and conspiracy to rob.
Det Insp Justin Spanner, who led the investigation, said: “This was a ferocious attack, using an appalling array of weapons.”
Sentencing will take place on Wednesday.
