The shooter who opened fire outside a pub on Christmas Eve, killing a 26-year-old beautician, was given a life sentence with a minimum period of 48 years.
Following a trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Connor Chapman, 23, was found guilty of killing Elle Edwards, who was struck twice in the back of the head on December 24, 2017, when he fired 12 shots from a Skorpion submachine gun outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village, Wirral, Merseyside.
He was sentenced by Mr Justice Goose on Friday.
The trial heard that a conflict between gangs on the Woodchurch estate, where Chapman lived, and the Beechwood, or Ford, estate on the other side of the M53 in Wirral culminated in the shooting.
The father of two asserted that he was home during the shooting and that he had given a man—whom he would not identify—the key to a stolen Mercedes that was parked in a lot close to his Houghton Road house.
However, the jury determined that Chapman was the one who had driven the car to the crowded pub and had waited outside for over three hours before attacking his targets, Jake Duffy and Kieran Salkeld, as well as three other men who were unrelated to the dispute.
After the incident, he drove to a friend’s house, Thomas Waring’s, where surveillance footage captured Chapman, with his unusual long hair, appearing to drop the gun as he walked towards the location.
He and Waring, 20, travelled to Frodsham, Cheshire, a week later on New Year’s Eve, when they burned out the stolen Mercedes.
Chapman was found guilty of murder, two counts of attempted murder, two counts of injury with the intent to cause great bodily harm, one count of assault resulting in actual bodily harm, possession of a Skorpion submachine gun with the intent to endanger life, and possession of ammunition with the intent to endanger life.
Prior to the trial, he entered a guilty plea to the charge of handling stolen property.
Waring, of Private Drive, Barnston, entered a plea of guilty prior to the trial to disobeying a disclosure notice and was found guilty of helping an offender and possessing a prohibited handgun.
