Teenager guilty of gunning down ex-Yorkshire students

Sheffield University graduates James Kouzaris, 24, and James Cooper, 25, were gunned down after they drunkenly walked into a public housing estate in the Newtown area of Sarasota in the early hours of April 16 last year. Shawn Tyson, 17, was found guilty of two counts of first degree murder after a trial at Sarasota County Courthouse.

It took the jury of eight women and four men about two hours to convict Tyson of murder in the first degree of both men.

The 17-year-old, wearing an orange shirt and brown tie, sat emotionless as the verdict was read out to the court, as did his mother Kenyatta Whitfield, in the public gallery.

Mr Kouzaris, from Northampton, and Mr Cooper, from Warwickshire, were confronted by Tyson, who tried to rob them. When they had no money, he told them: “well since you ain’t got no money, I got something for your a**”.

The men pleaded to go home, saying they were drunk, but the teenager, then 16, shot first one of them, then the other.

When they were found, both still had their wallets and cash – Mr Cooper had $63.45 (£39), while Mr Kouzaris had $62.05.

Tyson boasted to friend Latrece Washington that one of the victims was “crying for his life”, and he had shot him and “emptied the clip on him”.

The teenager was seen by neighbours running to his house and climbing in the window just after the gunshots.

He also told another friend, Marvin Gaines, he had killed the men.Mr Gaines said Tyson gave him seven 0.22 calibre shell casings to bury in his backyard, as well as a gun.

The families of the two victims said in a statement that Tyson was “evil”, and that they had been given “a life sentence”.