Overview
- The jury at Manchester Crown Court, which returned verdicts Friday, found Lee Williams guilty of murder and John Harte and Riley McDermott guilty of manslaughter.
- Prosecutors said a BMW blocked Vernard Murray’s Ford Focus, a crash flipped his car, he was stabbed in the wreck, then chased and stabbed again before he collapsed and later died in hospital.
- The case described Williams and McDermott as masked knifemen in black clothing, while Harte stayed in the BMW as a front-seat passenger who shared the plan.
- Key evidence included CCTV of the chase and ambush, witness accounts, a video of a stabbing gesture after the attack, and Williams’s earlier admission that he stabbed Mr Murray.
- Reports note the BMW was abandoned and set alight, and McDermott named an unidentified driver called “Mr X,” with no resolution on the driver or the arson in the coverage.