TWO KILLERS who fatally shot a man at point-blank range have been convicted of murder.
Ty Blake, from Shard End, shot James Teer in the face with a sawn-off shotgun on August 8 2019.
The ‘assassination’ killing in Erdington targeted James Teer, 20, as he played football with his friends.
Blake was paid £550 to take part in the murder by Sharn Miles, of Alum Rock.
He called James to approach the stolen black BMW and killed him in cold blood, in Goosemoor Lane, Erdington.
Twenty minutes after Blake and Sharn Miles, from Alum Rock, escaped the scene the duo was seen on security footage ordering chicken and chips.
But a tissue used by Blake, after the shotgun recoil split his lip, linked his DNA to the murder, police say.
Detectives found their BMW M Sport abandoned in Small Heath on the morning of August 9.
Blake’s blood-stained tissue was inside the car which officers matched and arrested him six days later.
A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police said: “Our detectives conducted a painstaking trawl of CCTV and plotted the BMW’s route over several miles from Erdington to Miles’ home in Gowan Road, Alum Rock.
“We seized more clips showing the car earlier in the day before the pair had chance to fit it with cloned number plates.
“That led them to the owner’s address in Leicester where the car had been stolen in the early hours of 8 August. And examination of phone records showed mobiles linked to Blake and Miles were active near the burgled house at the time.
“Miles fled the country through Dover port shortly after the killing but was arrested on August 13 having returned to the UK.”
“We arrested Blake from his home two days later.
“A Nike tracksuit matching that worn by one offender was found in his house along with the wooden butt of a shotgun and five shotgun cartridges in a shed.”
The car theft in Leicester was carried out by Lauren Malin, from Community Close, Wood End, who drove Blake from Coventry to Birmingham shortly before the shooting.
Police charged all three with James Teer’s murder and at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday (March 4) Blake and Miles were found guilty of murder and burglary. They will be sentenced today (March 5)
Malin was cleared of murder but convicted of burglary.
West Midlands Police Detective Chief Inspector Scott Griffiths, said: “This was a callous and shocking assassination of a decent young man. He was shot while playing in the street with friends. One moment he was playing football and the next he’d been killed.
“He was with teenagers, some of school age, at the time and some of these witnessed the point-blank shooting. They are experiencing ongoing trauma from witnessing what happened and of course James’ friends and families are devastated.
“The motive was initially unclear but we later understood Miles had an altercation with some men in a Birmingham nightclub a week before the shooting.
“Mr Teer was not directly involved in that, very much on the periphery, but it appears Miles and Blake were intent on causing serious harm to anyone linked to the group. Sadly James was the first person they came across on the day.
“I hope these guilty verdicts will come as some comfort for James’ family and I wish them all the best in their continued recovery from this tragic event.”
