Men who celebrated shotgun killing with fast food convicted of murder
James Teer, 20, was playing with friends when he was shot dead at point-blank range in the street where he lived.
Two callous killers who celebrated with a takeaway minutes after blasting a young man in the face with a shotgun have been convicted of his murder.
Ty Blake, who pulled the trigger, and Sharn Miles, who drove the men to and from the scene, were found guilty by a Birmingham Crown Court jury after a six-week trial.
James Teer, 20, was shot dead after Miles pulled up on the victim’s road in a stolen car and called him over, as he played with friends in Goosemoor Lane, Erdington, on August 8, last year.
Unsuspecting Teer, who had just returned from the gym, went to the driver’s side window where Blake, sitting in the passenger seat, unloaded both barrels into his head.
Leaving their victim lying in the street, remorseless Blake, 19, and 20-year-old Miles, both from Birmingham, then got rid of the gun, before casually strolling to a fast food restaurant.
CCTV showed the men ordering food, with Blake recorded holding a tissue to his lip which had been cut by the gun’s powerful recoil.
Detectives who brought the two men to justice described the killing – triggered by an altercation at a Birmingham nightclub a week earlier – as “horrific”.
“There was only one outcome.”
He added: “About a week prior to the murder, James was in a nightclub with friends
“One of his friends had an altercation with Miles
“It’s as a result of that, Sharn Miles sourced a shotgun and stole a BMW, then sought out James and his friends.”
The barrister told how one moment Mr Teer had been “happy and smiling”, and the next he was lying on his back with fatal wounds.
The loud noise of the blast from the 12-gauge shotgun was captured on nearby CCTV.
Commenting further on the inquiry, Mr Griffiths said: “It’s horrific. James was just being his normal self, keeping fit, socialising with people.
“He was really well-liked and known by a lot of people. What played out on the evening of August 8 is that Ty Blake and Sharn Miles came into that area with a purpose.
“That purpose was to kill somebody and that’s what happened.”
The first person to rush towards the scene after the shooting was an off-duty nurse, who on seeing the gravity of Mr Teer’s injuries, realised they were fatal.
Mr Griffiths said: “A member of the community who is a nurse and used to dealing with injuries such as this… could see the injuries were fatal.
“This has had a lasting effect not just on people who were there, but also the young people playing with James who have been extremely traumatised by this incident and the level of violence.”
After the shooting the killers drove a short distance, dropping the gun at Miles’ home, before going to the nearby takeaway.
Mr Griffiths said: “They purchased food and consumed it within 30 minutes of James’s death, showing no signs of emotion.
“They were absolutely callous in relation as to how they carried out this attack.
“It is so hard to understand that somebody could react in such a plain way after causing such injuries to another person.”
The men had used a high-performance BMW in the killing, stolen off the driveway of a home in Leicestershire hours before the attack.
Miles drove the car from the owner’s address, parking it a few streets from his Birmingham home, before changing the number plates to make it harder to trace.
He then picked up Blake – who had sourced the gun – from his home, and within the hour Mr Teer was dead.
At their trial, both men accepted being in the car during the shooting, but each said the other had pulled the trigger.
Jurors deliberated over three days before unanimously convicting Blake and Miles of murder. Blake was also found guilty of theft and burglary relating to the car used in the shooting.
Miles, of Gowan Road, Alum Rock, Birmingham, briefly bowed his head as he was found guilty of murder, while Blake, of Shustoke Road, Shard End, pursed his lips and stared at the judge.
All three defendants will be sentenced on Thursday.
