JURORS have been listening to how police poured through hours of CCTV footage and telephone data to piece together the movements of a member of a ‘killing team’ on trial for murder.
Eugert Merizaj is accused of helping to organise the killing of Hemawand Ali Hussein by luring him to a potential drug cannabis farm site.
The 31-year-old Albanian played a key role in the plotting the fatal shooting of the father-of-two, Teesside Crown Court heard.
The 30-year-old was found dead in a property on Charterhouse Street, Hartlepool on September 14, 2019, after he walked into a rival gang’s carefully prepared trap.
Leanne Hodgson, an intelligence analyst for Cleveland Police, pulled together data from a number of sources to produce a ‘timeline’ of events leading up to the fatal to enable detectives to piece together the movements of the defendant in the days leading up to the killing.
She took jurors through CCTV footage captured at a Middlesbrough B&Q store where Merizaj bought a number of items, including a large axe, cable ties and rope.
The jury also heard evidence from a man who arranged for members of the gang to get a copy of door keys for the house on Charterhouse Street where Mr Hussein suffered a single blast from a sawn-off shotgun at point-blank range.
The prosecution barrister told the jury that three other men had already been found guilty of manslaughter at an earlier trial but reminded members to make a decision on only the evidence they hear during the trial.
Merizaj, of Montague Street, Leicester, denies murder.
The trial continues.
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