'Cold blooded killer' found guilty of murder of Bradford taxi driver almost 20 years ago
It was Mohammed Basharat's great misfortune to be involved in a 'petty' road rage incident, almost 20 years ago.
The other man involved was Richardo Linton, a dangerous killer who was already on the run after another fatal shooting in New York.
The pair had clipped each other's wing mirrors, got out of their cars, and a 'scuffle' ensued. Linton left telling Mr Basharat: "You don't know who you are messing with. I'm going to kill you".
Linton later shot Mr Basharat, a father of four young children, twice on the day he burst into the Little Horton Provate Hire taxi office in Bradford in October 2001.
He was also found guilty of attempting to murder one of his colleagues. Jamshad Khan only cheated death when the handgun failed to fire.
Linton, 45, denied both charges but was found guilty by a jury at Bradford Crown Court who returned unanimous guilty verdicts following a trial lasting several weeks. He will be sentenced on September 27th.After the murder, Linton fled the country and went back to Jamaica.
In 2003 he was arrested in Jamaica by police officers from the US and taken back to America to stand trial over a fatal shooting in New York. Linton was found guilty of that murder in 2005 and jailed, but last September he was extradited from the US to stand trial here for the murder of Mr Basharat.
During the trial the jury heard that the murder in New York happened in January 1993 after a gunman approached a stationary vehicle and fired shots at one of the four men inside. The man was initially shot three times and the gunman then aimed his pistol at another man who was shot in the leg as he jumped out of the way.
Linton had then grabbed hold of his initial victim and fired a final fatal shot into his head. At Linton’s New York trial the three surviving men described the gunman as a Jamaican man called Ricky who they bought drugs off.
Giving evidence to the jury in Bradford Linton, who maintains his innocence over the shooting in America, said he was in London buying cocaine for his drugs collective on the weekend that Mr Basharat was shot dead.
He said he heard that a taxi driver had been shot and killed in Bradford, but after staying in London for three weeks he had returned to Jamaica.
He also denied being involved in the road rage incident with Mr Basharat the day before the murder. The court heard that Linton had come into the UK from Jamaica in late 2000 using a false passport and a false identity on October 19, 2001.
Speaking after the verdict, Detective Chief Inspector Vanessa Rolfe of West Yorkshire Police said Linton was clearly a 'very dangerous'man