Man jailed after Enfield student fatally shot and stabbed

Russell Jordan Jones was killed in an attack carried out by four men

A man has been given a life sentence for the murder of a student mistakenly thought to be in a rival gang.

Russell Jones, 23, was shot and stabbed in an unprovoked attack in Enfield, north London, on 17 March 2018.

Kyle Gordon was sentenced at the Old Bailey to at least 28 years in prison for his murder, causing grievous bodily harm to another man and possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life.

Gordon, 24, was found guilty on Monday after a trial at the same court.

Three other Enfield men - Bilkan Bilkaner, Duke Quainoo and Sherome Williams - had previously been convicted of the student's murder.

'Enemy area'

During Gordon's trial, the Old Bailey heard Mr Jones was a local man who was a student at the University of Hertfordshire.

As he stood with friends outside a shop in South Street he was attacked without warning by men wearing dark clothing and masks.

CCTV footage showed Mr Jones being shot in the abdomen and stabbed a dozen times by a group of four men. His friend, Karun Singh, was stabbed in the back.

Prosecutor Philip Evans KC told the court: "The attackers spent one hour driving around, effectively in an enemy area, looking for suitable targets before they apparently alighted on Russell Jones and his friends quite at random."

Mr Jones died at the scene of the attack, on South Street in Enfield

In a statement read to the court, Mr Jones's mother, Stephanie Saunders, said her son was "a normal young man" who had been out with his friends.

"He was defenceless and very unaware of what was about to happen," she said. "I can never forgive those responsible for taking his life in the most brutal, vicious, senseless way."

'You had a choice'

In his defence Gordon - who was 18 at the time of the killing - argued he had fallen into gang culture because of the area he lived in.

But passing sentence Judge Anthony Leonard said: "You had a choice and the choice you made was to become a full-blown member of a gang."

Gordon was also sentenced to nine years in prison for causing grievous bodily harm to Karun Singh and 14 years for possessing a firearm with intent. Both sentences will be served concurrently with his 28-year minimum term for murder.

Williams was convicted of Mr Jones's murder following a trial in June 2023 and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 25 years.

Bilkaner and Quainoo were convicted in 2019 and sentenced to a minimum of 29 years.

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