A MECHANIC who tried to murder a wealthy housewife by shooting her in cold blood as she sat on the sofa watching TV has been jailed for almost 30 years.
Martynas Okmanas, 28, was caught on CCTV calmly walking into the victim’s home before blasting her with a handgun during a planned “hit” on December 18 last year.
A court heard the assassination attempt only failed after his gun jammed after he had already shot the mum of twins twice in the shoulder and hand.
The woman escaped her family home to seek help from a neighbour before Okmanas fled the scene in a waiting BMW on Dovehouse Lane, Solihull, West Midlands.
He was arrested by police who tracked him to an address on Birmingham’s Stratford Road, on February 22 and charged with attempted murder.
On Wednesday (September 4), Okmanas, of Corby, Northamptonshire, was jailed for 28 years after being found guilty by a jury sitting at Birmingham Crown Court.
Jurors were told the thug targeted the 51-year-old woman having watched her husband leave on the school run.
The court heard that the victim who lived with her husband was financially comfortable and owned some commercial and residential properties.
Suspecting it was a robbery, she threw a Rolex watch towards the masked intruder – but without uttering a word he opened fire with a handgun as she sat in the living room.
West Midlands Police trawled CCTV and ANPR cameras and managed to track the BMW 3-Series, which was running on cloned plates, on a path to Northamptonshire.
Detectives also discovered that three days later the vehicle travelled down to Dover and boarded the Eurotunnel.
It’s believed Okmanas returned to the UK on January 6 having spent Christmas with family in Lithuania – but covert police intelligence helped track him down.
Officers forced open a reinforced door and past a barricade of furniture before arresting him from the roof above a shop in Sparkhill, Birmingham.
Detective Inspector Kat Sibley, of West Midlands Police, said the motive for the cold-blooded shooting remains unclear.
She added: “Incidents like this are extremely rare in Solihull… that’s what made it so shocking for people in the local community.
“We have some hypothesis for what was behind the attack but nothing concrete – and there are no links between Okmanas and the victim as far as we know.
“Nothing was stolen from the address, despite a Rolex watch being thrown at his feet, so our belief is this was a targeted attack on the woman.
“This case is not closed. We will revisit the investigation and if new information arises suggesting anyone else was involved in the shooting we will pursue them in order to seek justice for the victim.
“We wish her well in her continued recovery from both the physical and mental scars from this shocking episode.”
