Kenny Reilly, 29, died two days after he was shot in the head in Maryhill, Glasgow, in April 2018.
Image source, Police Scotland
Four men have been found guilty of the “planned execution” of a man as he sat in a car at a set of traffic lights.
John Kennedy, 41, shot 29-year-old Kenny Reilly in the Maryhill area of Glasgow in April 2018.
His co-accused Morton Eadie, 56, his son Darren Eadie and Ross Fisher, both 30, were also found guilty of murder.
All four were jailed for life. Kennedy must serve at least 26 years, Darren Eadie at least 24 years, and Morton Eadie and Fisher at least 22 years.
Kennedy was also accused of the murder of Jamie Campbell in March 2006 but the case against him was found not proven.
The verdicts came after a three-month trial at the High Court in Edinburgh.
The judge Lord Beckett said that people who were “prepared to engage in such meticulously planned and ruthlessly perpetrated assassination on the streets of our cities can expect substantial punishment”.
The court heard Mr Reilly’s murder was linked to a feud between rival factions in the Possilpark and Maryhill areas of Glasgow.
Detectives believe he was killed because Kennedy and his accomplices thought he was responsible for assaulting their friend, Ryan McAteer.
And the court also heard claims Mr Reilly owed £100,000 to a high profile criminal.
Image source, PA Media
One of the key witnesses in the trial said Kennedy had confessed to the killings while in prison.
Kevin McGinn, who shared a cell with Kennedy in Glasgow’s Barlinnie Prison for 11 days in October 2018, said he had “whispered in my ear and said to me ‘it was me’.”
He told police that Kennedy had said the attack was over “drugs and money”.
Mr Reilly was a passenger in a BMW being driven by his friend Emma MacDougall when he was targeted at about 22:20 on 16 April.
The pair were travelling to a Chinese restaurant and had stopped at traffic lights at the junction at Bilsland Drive and Maryhill Road.
‘Severe injury’
Ms MacDougall, 25, told the court a black Ford S-Max car pull up on the right hand lane.
She recalled: “Somebody came out of the back seats wearing all black – a black balaclava – and started shooting at my car.
“I don’t think I have any words for it. It was every single emotion ever. I didn’t know whether to drive – I know I needed to phone the police, I knew I needed to phone an ambulance.
“I was trying to remain calm because I knew Kenny had obviously suffered a severe injury.”
Mr Reilly died in hospital two days later from a single gun shot to the head.
His attackers sped off to Craigieburn Gardens in Maryhill, where they set the car on fire.
But forensic experts found Fisher’s DNA on the wreckage and the breakthrough helped officers narrow the list of suspects.
The court heard that when Kennedy was arrested in May 2018 he owned a phone which contained Encrochat software.
The secure, encrypted messaging app which was mainly used by members of organised crime gangs to plan schemes.
Police also learned that Ryan McAteer had been seriously assaulted on 8 April 2018.
The jury was told that Darren Eadie blamed Mr Reilly, who was described in court as a “Possil boy”, for the attack.
Police uncovered evidence which showed that Darren Eadie had started planning a revenge attack for which he recruited his father Morton, Ross Fisher and John Kennedy.
Officers recovered a mobile phone from Mr McAteer and found a number of incriminating messages in a WhatsApp group in which he and Darren Eadie had participated.
Detectives found that the accused were in regular contact with each other in the days leading up to the fatal attack on Mr Reilly, but that the calls stopped afterwards.
Serious organised crime
On the day Mr Reilly died in hospital, Kennedy and his partner flew to Jamaica for a two-week holiday. In the following days Darren and Morton Eadie both left the country.
The jury heard this was an attempt to avoid police attention.
Prosecutor Steven Borthwick said the evidence showed that Darren Eadie organised the plot, Morton Eadie acted as the getaway driver, Fisher stole the S-Max and set fire to it following the murder, and Kennedy was the gunman.
He described Mr Reilly’s death as “a planned execution, brazenly carried out in the street in a residential area of Glasgow”.
All four were found guilty of murder and of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by setting fire to the car used in the attack. The offences were aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime.