Every killer jailed in 2024 for taking a life – from knife and gunmen to deadly drivers
It's the worst of all deeds to take someone else's life. For many culprits, living with that burden for the rest of their days is punishment enough, notwithstanding a significant period of imprisonment.
But some killers are truly evil and have no remorse for their actions. Below is our list of the criminals from our region jailed in 2024 for killing others, one way or another.
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Brandon Price
Brandon Price
Brandon Price[3] stabbed 18-year-old Jack Norton to death in a park in Darlaston in an unprovoked attack. He then celebrated 'jumping up and down with excitement' and shouted 'you didn't think we'd do it, we've f*****g' done it'.
The victim had been with his friends when he bumped into Price, then aged 18, and a 15-year-old boy who started being aggressive. Mr Norton went to leave but he was stabbed by Price.
Both Price and the other teenager, who is too young to be named, were convicted of murder and sentenced to life. Price must serve a minimum term of 20 years before parole while the younger teenager was handed 15 years minimum.
Arjun Dosanjh and Jacek Wiatrowski
Arjun Dosanjh and Jacek Wiatrowski (Image: West Midlands Police)
Arjun Dosanjh and Jacek Wiatrowski[4] caused the death of 81-year-old Surinder Kaur by 'driving competitively'. They both began speeding down Oldbury Road after pulling up next to each other at a set of lights.
Wiatrowski spotted Mrs Kaur, who was walking home from the Gurdwara in Rowley Regis, braked sharply and avoided her but Dosanjh, 26, swerved on to the wrong side of the road and ploughed into her.
Both confessed to causing death by dangerous driving. Wiatrowski, of Wednesbury, and Dosanjh, from Oldbury, were each jailed for six years and banned from the roads for eight years.
Gurveer Bhandal
Gurveer Bhandal (Image: WMP)
Gurveer Bhandal[5] stabbed student Ashley Day to death at a party to celebrate the victim going to university. Trouble erupted at the hired ground floor flat in Digbeth[6] when people were told to leave .
The 19-year-old repeatedly stabbed talented footballer Mr Day four times, including while he was on the ground. The victim had tried to shield the blows in vain with a large nitrous oxide canister.
Bhandal, from Wombourne, was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter. He was sentenced to 13 years with an extended three-year licence period.
Peter Norgrove
Peter Norgrove (Image: West Midlands Police / SWNS)
Peter Norgrove[7] beat Sharon Gordon to death with a hammer at her home in Dudley[8] after she criticised his building work. The 43-year-old left the mum for dead in a pool of blood at the bottom of her stairs having struck her head eight times leaving a hole the size of a £2 coin.
They had rowed over £29,000 worth of work supposed to last six weeks which had not been completed after 15 months. Hours after leaving the scene Norgrove led a Jehovah's Witness service at the same place of worship that 59-year-old Ms Gordon attended. He pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to life with a minimum of 15 years.
Thomas O'Brien-Wood
Thomas O'Brien-Wood (Image: Warwickshire Police)
Thomas O'Brien-Wood[9] caused the death of his passenger 20-year-old Harry Smart after crashing into another vehicle head-on as he was entering the M42.[10] He tested positive for alcohol and cocaine when detained by police.
Police had pursued him earlier due to the manner of his driving but were forced to abandon the chase and they lost him. The 21-year-old from The Beck in Dudley[11] admitted causing death by dangerous driving. He was jailed for seven years and six months and banned from the road for eight years and nine months.
Carl Ellitts
Carl Ellitts (Image: West Midlands Police)
Carl Ellitts[12] murdered a man in Wolverhampton[13] in a four-day 'tornado' of violence in which he raped two women, robbed three victims and assaulted another. He ambushed devoted dad Roy Deeley-Price and carried out four separate attacks on him in the space of 11 minutes.
In the middle of them he made a failed attempt to use his bank card at a petrol station to buy a sandwich. Ellitts, aged 26, was branded a 'coward and a bully' by a judge who concluded he 'enjoyed exercising power' over his victims. He was initially sentenced to life with a minimum of 27 years which was later increased to 35 years by the Court of Appeal.
Joshua Edgington, Dray Simmonds, Leroy Robinson and Corey Burkitt
Clockwise from top left: Joshua Edgington, Dray Simmonds, Leroy Robinson and Corey Burkitt.
Joshua Edgington, Dray Simmonds, Leroy Robinson and Corey Burkitt[14] hunted down and killed Joseph Riches in Stourbridge[15] after the 16-year-old had come at them with a screwdriver. Simmonds, aged 20, fatally stabbed him in the chest with a machete while Edgington, also 20, filmed the dying victim.
The footage was callously played at a party the killers went to later that night. Meanwhile Joseph scrambled into a car with his friends. His body was found in the abandoned vehicle in Rowley Regis.
All four, who were teenagers at the time, were sentenced to life after being convicted of murder and possession of a machete. Simmonds, from Dudley, and Edgington, from Birmingham, were handed minimum terms of 21 years.
Burkitt, aged 17, from Smethwick[16] was handed 15 years minimum while Robinson, aged 16, of Dudley was told to serve 15 years, six months minimum.
Ethan Holness and Frederick Rogers
Ethan Holness and Frederick Rogers
Two complete strangers caused a severe crash with each other in Walsall[17] which killed 20-year-old James Sheridan. The victim was a backseat passenger in a stolen Ford Fiesta driven by Ethan Holness who was doing 72mph on the 30mph route in Pelsall.
Travelling in the opposite direction was Frederick Rogers who was doing double the limit and drink-driving. He ran a red light leading to the smash. Both men were convicted of causing death by dangerous driving and banned from the road.
Holness, aged 20, from Wolverhampton was jailed for seven years and six months. Rogers, aged 34, of Cheslyn Hay, was sentenced to ten years.
David Hollick
David Hollick
David Hollick[18] killed his six-month old baby in the middle of the night at his parents' home in Walsall[19]. He inflicted catastrophic injuries to Kairo in the early hours of February 9, 2020 then lied they were caused by a fall.
The baby suffered fractures to his skill and severe injuries to his brain. Experts concluded they were the 'consequence of severe blunt force impact trauma' and not rough-handling.
Hollick, aged 29, of Primley Avenue, Walsall was cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter. He was jailed for 15 years.
Cyle Crowley
Cyle Crowley
Teenager Cyle Crowley[20] stabbed father-of-three Hazim Al-Bajouri to death near a bus stop in Hunters Road, Hockley. The 43-year-old victim had gone to buy drugs from him on June 12 last year when they got into a row in the street.
After the stabbing the killer's friend Khalil Henriques, 24, tried to help him by putting his blood-stained jumper in the washing machine while his father Carl Dunning, 44, swapped clothes with him so he could run away undetected.
Crowley, aged 19, of Hunters Road, Hockley, was jailed for 17 years for manslaughter. Henriques, of the same address, and Dunning, of Queens Heard Road, Handsworth were both found guilty of assisting an offender and sentenced to two years each.
Terrell Boyce and Nathaniel Daly
Terrell Boyce and Nathaniel Daly
Terrell Boyce[21] stabbed 33-year-old Ronique Thomas to death in Kings Heath[22] while trying to rob his £4,600 electric bike. The 18-year-old bizarrely developed a grudge against the victim who had taken the bike back from in an earlier incident.
Boyce claimed he had bought it from someone else and there was no evidence he had stolen it in the first place, but there was no doubt the bike belonged to Mr Thomas due to the serial number.
After a chance encounter Boyce chased him down Kings Heath high street and stabbed him to death. He was sentenced to life with a minimum of 25 years in jail for murder, robbery and offences of a having a knife or offensive weapon.
Nathaniel Daly, aged 21, joined in the pursuit armed with a knife but turned back after seeing Boyce had already stabbed the victim. He received ten years for manslaughter, robbery and having a knife.
Lucious Winchester
Lucious Winchester (Image: West Midlands Police)
Lucious Winchester[23] stabbed to death Jetmir Pemaj whilst acting as a lookout during a botched drugs raid in Wolverhampton. The 25-year-old was part of a group planning to burgle a cannabis factory in Harrow Street, Whitmore Reans around 5am on July 27 last year.
Mr Pemaj, 33, pulled up in a car with his friend leading to a chase and struggle during which he was fatally injured while his associate was also stabbed. Winchester, aged 25, from Quinton admitted manslaughter, wounding and aggravated burglary. He was jailed for 15 years.
Lee, Luke and Lewis O’Brien
Lee O’Brien and his two sons Luke and Lewis (Image: WMP)
Father and sons Lee, Luke and Lewis O'Brien killed family friend Darren Smith and stole two expensive Rolex watches from his wrist. They ambushed and fatally beat the 51-year-old at a phone shop in Shard End near his home.
After the attack the father and sons fled to Torquay where they were arrested. Mr Smith, who had an underlying heart condition, walked unsteadily out of the shop before collapsing from a heart attack nearby. Lee O'Brien was also expecting Mr Smith to provide a court statement supposedly exonerating him in a separate case relating to stolen cars they were both involved in.
All three defendants admitted manslaughter. Lee O'Brien, aged 51, from, Stechford[24], was sentenced to 11 years, eight months. Luke O'Brien, 36, from Birmingham city centre[25], and Lewis O'Brien, 31, from Yardley[26], were both sentenced to 12 years and six months.
Kami Carpenter and Remy Gordon
Kami Carpenter and Remy Gordon (Image: West Midlands Police)
Kami Carpenter stabbed semi-professional footballer Cody Fisher to death on the dancefloor of The Crane nightclub in Digbeth on Boxing Day, 2022. He did not know the victim but exacted revenge on behalf of his friend Remy Gordon, who held a petty grudge over the 23-year-old following a minor incident in a bar two nights earlier.
Gordon had posted a picture of Mr Fisher to his Snapchat group saying 'due to shank him up', which is exactly what happened less than 48 hours later.
Carpenter, aged 22 and from Kings Norton, and Gordon, 23 and from Rednal, were found guilty of murder and sentenced to life with minimum terms of 25 years and 26 years respectively.
Arshdeep Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Shivdeep Singh, Manjot Singh and Sukhmandeep Singh
Left then clockwise from top centre: Arshdeep Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Manjot Singh, Sukhmandeep Singh and Shivdeep Singh
Five men[27] from the Black Country killed DPD driver Aurman Singh in a brutal ambush attack in Shrewsbury. The 23-year-old from Smethwick was targeted while making a delivery in Coton Hill in August last year.
The gang chopped at his head with an axe hacking off part of his ear and leaving his brain split in two. They also bludgeoned him with a golf club, wooden stave, metal bar, hockey stick, shovel, knife and cricket bat.
Sukhmandeep Singh[28], 25, from Smethwick, worked in the same DPD depot as Mr Aurman and had provided the attackers with information on his whereabouts. He was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter. Four other men were convicted of murder and handed life sentences.
Arshdeep Singh, aged 24, from Tipton was 'at the centre of everything'. He along with Jagdeep Singh, aged 23 from Dudley, Shivdeep Singh, aged 27 and from Smethwick, and Manjot Singh, aged 25, also from Smethwick, were all handed minimum terms of 28 years.
Pablo Hoad
Pablo Hoad
Pablo Hoad killed Shannon Stanley during a drunken row at her flat in Small Heath[29]. An argument broke out after he accused her male friend of being a 'snitch' and told him to leave.
He then dragged 27-year-old Ms Stanley into the kitchen and twice stabbed her neck before fleeing the property. Hoad called 999 and said 'I'm the perpetrator, not the victim'. He claimed he acted in self-defence but his lie was rejected.
Hoad was found guilty of manslaughter and was jailed for 17 years with an extended four-year licence period.
Tyrone Hollywood, Leighton Williams and Aaron Coates
Tyrone Hollywood, Leighton Williams and Aaron Coates
Leighton Williams stabbed Kelvin Ward in the chest in the middle of the road after Tyrone Hollywood had swung a zombie knife at the 50-year-old dad. Both had been part of a gang, including Aaron Coates, who had plotted to kill the victim's teenaged son and had rammed his car at the KFC drive-thru in Castle Bromwich.
The teen managed to escape after a foot chase but Mr Ward jumped behind the wheel of the gang's stolen Ford Kuga, which they left behind. He tried to run down Hollywood but missed and crashed into railings leading to the confrontation and fatal attack in the street.
All three defendants were convicted of conspiracy to murder Mr Ward's teenage son. Williams, from Shard End, and Hollywood, of Ward End, were found guilty of murdering Mr Ward and sentenced to life with minimum terms of 29 years and 19 years respectively. Coates, of Shard End, was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 21 years.
Fourth defendant Rusharn Williams-Reid, 18, of Castle Vale was cleared of homicide in relation to Mr Ward but received 13 years and six months detention for the conspiracy to murder offence.
William Connors
William Connors (Image: West Midlands Police)
William Connors[30] deliberately mowed down and killed his father-in-law Thomas Connors outside the victim's home in Wolverhampton. The 28-year-old had gone out looking for his estranged wife following a row, despite a bail condition not to contact her.
He argued with Thomas, aged 62, a cancer survivor who was also his uncle, and initially drove away. However William turned his Mercedes around, mounted the kerb and ran him down causing fatal injuries.
He then fled to Coventry before handing himself in. Thomas Connors died in hospital the following day. William was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 20 years.
Rajveer Mahey
Rajveer Mahey (Image: West Midlands Police)
Rajveer Mahey[31] killed his wife of 20 years Kamaljeet Mahey after becoming 'obsessed' with the false idea she was having an affair. He slashed at her 28 times after luring her into the garage at their home in Bilston in the early hours of the morning, while their two children were asleep.
The 50-year-old waited two hours before 'calmly' calling relatives to confess what he had done. Paramedics found him sat 'emotionless' on the sofa when they arrived. Jealous and insecure Mahey had regularly abused and controlled his 45-year-old wife during their relationship as well as spread bogus rumours she had been unfaithful.
After cynically claiming he had acted in self-defence he was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life with a minimum term of 16 years and eight months.
Mohammed Qasim
Mohammed Qasim
Mohammed Qasim murdered Richard Hopley in Harborne[32] in a plot to rob the drug dealer he was driving around. The 24-year-old and three other men set a trap and lay in wait before Mr Hopley arrived in a Volkswagen Passat.
Qasim got in the passenger seat, brandished a knife and demanded to be handed the drugs stash from the dealer, who was in the back seat. But when a struggle ensued he stabbed 43-year-old driver Mr Hopley in the chest and then fled.
The victim managed to drive around the corner but collapsed at the wheel, crashed and died from his injuries. Qasim, from Satley, was found guilty of murder and conspiracy to rob. He was sentenced to life with a minimum of 30 years imprisonment.
References
- ^ Enter our £1,000 Aldi voucher giveaway and go wild in the aisles (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ here (chat.whatsapp.com)
- ^ Brandon Price (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Arjun Dosanjh and Jacek Wiatrowski (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Gurveer Bhandal (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Digbeth (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Peter Norgrove (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Dudley (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Thomas O'Brien-Wood (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ M42. (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Dudley (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Carl Ellitts (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Wolverhampton (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Joshua Edgington, Dray Simmonds, Leroy Robinson and Corey Burkitt (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Stourbridge (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Smethwick (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Walsall (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ David Hollick (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Walsall (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Cyle Crowley (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Terrell Boyce (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Kings Heath (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Lucious Winchester (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Stechford (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Birmingham city centre (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Yardley (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Five men (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Sukhmandeep Singh (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Small Heath (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ William Connors (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Rajveer Mahey (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
- ^ Harborne (www.birminghammail.co.uk)