A MAN has been found guilty of playing a key role in the murder of a father-of-two blasted to death with a sawn-off shotgun at point-blank range.
Hemawand Ali Hussein was murdered moments after being lured into a house by a suspected drugs gang looking to set up a cannabis farm.
And jurors have decided that Eugert Merizaj played a pivotal part in persuading the 40-year-old to turn up Chapterhouse Street, Hartlepool, in September 2019.
Detectives from Cleveland Police pulled together hours of CCTV footage, mobile phone records and automatic number plate recognition data to piece together the movements of the ‘killing team’ deployed to execute Mr Hussein.
Teesside Crown Court had heard how the 31-year-old Albanian national helped to buy a number of items from a Middlesbrough B&Q, including an axe, rope, and cable ties, before taking them to the house in the days leading up to the murder.
Jurors took less than four hours to convict the defendant after a two-week trial.
The court had heard how members of the drugs gang had spent days planning the murder as detectives were able to trace their movements between London, Bolton, and Sheffield.
Francis Fitzgibbon QC, prosecuting, said a trawl through mobile phones belonging to Merizaj and his associates placed them in the area at the time of the killing and CCTV footage captured them running away from the scene just minutes after the fatal shot was fired.
He told jurors that Merizaj played a key role in getting the shotgun into the terraced property the day before the alleged murder and is the days leading up to it.
Merizaj declined to give evidence in his defence during the trial and his barrister, Timothy Raggott QC, told the court that his client was entitled to do so.
The judge, Honourable Mr Justice Nicholas Lavender QC, thanked the jury for their work during the trial and adjourned the case for sentencing later this month.
Noza Saffari, 39, of Park Lane, Middlesbrough, was jailed for 15 years after he was convicted of manslaughter and cleared of murder.
Qazim Marku, 25, of Maxwell Road, West Drayton, in London, Dorian Pirija, 33, of Trillo Avenue, Bolton, each got 19 years after they were also found guilty of manslaughter and cleared of murder.
A fourth man, Anxelo Xhaferi, was cleared of both charges.
Merizaj, of Montague Street, Leicester, will be sentenced on April 26.
He was remanded in custody.
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