A SECOND gang member has been found guilty of the murder of a father who was “hunted down” and killed for his Gucci bag.
Lewis Aquilina, 20, was convicted by a jury of stabbing Newport man Ryan O’Connor to death in the Alway area of the city last summer.
The innocent 26-year-old was walking along the road near the Aberthaw Road roundabout when he was attacked with hunting knives.
He was targeted by masked men who had ever met him before and attacked him with hunting knives simply because he was carrying a designer bag.
Joseph Jeremy, 18, was yesterday convicted of his brutal murder on the evening of Thursday, June 10, 2021.
Joseph Jeremy
Aquilina’s cousin Kyle Raisis, 18, was found guilty of the manslaughter and robbery of Mr O’Connor while Ethan Strickland, 19, was convicted of robbery.
Prosecutor Michael Brady QC told Newport Crown Court he was “hunted down and killed on a road trip to commit crime” by the gang from Cardiff.
Kyle Raisis
He said: “The defendants travelled in one single stolen car on false plates on a road trip from Cardiff to Newport on what would otherwise have been a mild, pleasant day.
“Ryan O’Connor, 'Apple', was the entirely innocent victim of this murderous attack.
Ethan Strickland
“He was not known to any of the defendants. He had no connection to them at all and had done nothing untoward to attract the attention of those in the Ford Fiesta ST.
“It never ceases to amaze, does it, the reason for which some people are killed.
“A Gucci bag and its contents of £40 are the reason why Mr O’Connor’s life was taken.”
Ryan O’Connor
Mr Brady added: "The defendants were on a road trip to commit crime.
“The speed and brutality with which he was attacked gave Mr O’Connor no chance.”
A fifth defendant, Elliott Fiteni, 19, of no fixed abode, Cardiff, was found not guilty of murder, manslaughter and robbery.
Jeremy, of no fixed abode, Cardiff; Aquilina, of Canton Court, Riverside, Cardiff; Raisis, of Bartley Wilson Way, Canton, Cardiff, and Strickland, of Clos Briallen, Caerau, Cardiff, will be sentenced at a date to be fixed.
Jeremy and Aquilina face life sentences for murder.
All the defendants were remanded in custody.
Mr O’Connor died from multiple stab wounds.
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