Accused ‘told his friend he shot Britons’

Latrece Washington, who was 17 at the time of the murders last April, said Shawn Tyson told her he told James Kouzaris, 24, and James Cooper, 25, that since they did not have any money, he would shoot them.

Tyson is accused of the murders of the Sheffield University graduates, who were gunned down in the impoverished Newtown area of Sarasota, Florida, in April last year.

The friends, who were holidaying with Mr Cooper’s family, drunkenly walked into a rundown public housing project known as The Courts.

They were found shirtless with their trousers round their thighs, but both still had their wallets and a small amount of money on them. Tyson, 17, denies two counts of first-degree murder. If convicted he faces life in jail without parole.

Ms Washington, now 18, yesterday told the court in Sarasota that she saw Tyson, whom she has known for around five years, sitting on his porch on April 16, when she was with another friend.

She said in Tyson’s house he told them he had seen Mr Kouzaris and Mr Cooper, whom he described as looking like a Mexican man and a white man, walking through the area.

“He was like, ‘last night around 3am, there was two guys walking and it looked like they were going in people’s cars’. He said he was with somebody and they wanted to rob them.

“He said that they were going to rob them and they were drunk.”

“That’s when he was like he shot one of them in the side and one of them fell instantly and then the other one was crying for his life, and he shot him and emptied the clip on him.”

Another friend of Tyson told the court he received a phone call just before the shooting, with Tyson saying he had seen the “crackers”, or white men, walking in the area.

Jermaine Bane, 21, said he regularly saw Tyson carrying a gun and had seen him fire it into the air.

Mr Bane told the court he received several phone calls from Tyson both before and after he heard gunshots in the early hours of April 16.

On the evening of April 15, he, Tyson, and two friends spent the evening together “smoking and chilling” and visited a Jamaican Club nearby.

The four split up just after midnight, with Mr Bane and one friend going to Mr Bane’s house, while Tyson headed in a different direction, the court heard.

Mr Bane said he heard Tyson say: “Who are those crackers walking past the park?” He hung up but shortly after heard gunshots.

He said Tyson called him asking if he had heard gunshots and if “anybody got hit”. He said Tyson asked him “repeatedly” to go out and see if the people were dead, but he refused.

Mr Bane originally told police he did not know anything about what had happened because he did not want “the image of being a snitch”, he said. The court heard he was arrested in May and charged with carrying a concealed weapon, but the charge was reduced in seriousness in exchange for giving evidence.

Another friend, Treshaun Simmons, said he had been with Tyson and Mr Bane, and when the group split up, he went to Mr Bane’s house with him, and shortly after, they both heard gunshots.

Mr Simmons told the court he had gone to Tyson’s house on April 15 to get some bullets. He said: “I needed bullets for my gun. I walked into Shawn’s room... I got a pack of bullets that weren’t open.”

The court heard Tyson was arrested nine days before the murders after gunshots were fired in the area.

The trial continues.