Post by Double~Hitz on Oct 29, 2005 22:09:06 GMT
So Solid Crew Killer Gets Life Sentence!
Posted: 10/29/2005 3:24:23 PM by foxxylady
A member of the So Solid Crew rap collective was jailed for life yesterday for murdering a love rival in a "wild west" style shoot out in south London.
Carl Morgan, 24, who appeared on the collective's chart-topping hit 21 Seconds, was told he must spend a minimum of 30 years in prison for shooting dead Colin Scarlett, his ex-girlfriend's new lover.
The common serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker, told him: "You have taken a young life. You have used firearms in a situation which is all too familiar, with the inevitable results that many lives have been ruined. Gun use is the scourge of our streets and causes misery and distress. The message must be that it will not be tolerated."
The group's frontman, Megaman (pictured below) whose real name is Dwayne Vincent, was also charged with murder. But an Old Bailey jury failed to reach a verdict on him and he was remanded to await a retrial next year.
Morgan was a minor figure in the garage collective, whose 2001 single 21 seconds projected them from the streets of south London on to a worldwide stage.
During a row with Mr Scarlett, Morgan was beaten up in front of his sister and his former girlfriend Elisha McFarlane, the mother of his two children. Humiliated and bent on revenge, Morgan confronted Mr Scarlett in Wandsworth, south Lon don, close to the streets where members of So Solid grew up in a harsh urban culture often involving drugs and guns.
Morgan, the jury heard, knew Mr Scarlett had been involved with guns and had been seen wearing a single glove, said to be a sign that the wearer carries or uses guns. The prosecution said Vincent had decided to make Morgan's fight his own because he regarded himself as "something of a leader" after achieving celebrity status as the founder of the collective.
The two groups confronted each other on a Wandsworth estate, and in the gun battle that followed Morgan pulled out his pistol and fired several shots. Mr Scarlett fired back but was shot three times and died later in hospital. "It was a scene more reminiscent of the wild west than southwest London," Richard Horwell, prosecuting told the jury.
Morgan was convicted last week but sentencing was adjourned until yesterday. He admitted being on the estate at the time of the shooting but denied involvement in Mr Scarlett's death. The murder weapon was never found and Morgan claimed a third gunman had fired the shots which killed his rival. However, a ballistics expert said the trajectory of the bullets proved this could not be the case.
Asked why he had not gone to the police after the shooting, Morgan said: "I went to my mum. I am a mummy's boy." Morgan turned to his mother when he was convicted, looking up at the public gallery and shouting that he loved her before storming from the dock.
Ms McFarlane was in court for the trial. She also has a son by Mr Scarlett and is known to have confided her concerns about the day she will have to tell her two sons that the father of one killed the father of the other.
Source: The Guardian/ Press Release
Posted: 10/29/2005 3:24:23 PM by foxxylady
A member of the So Solid Crew rap collective was jailed for life yesterday for murdering a love rival in a "wild west" style shoot out in south London.
Carl Morgan, 24, who appeared on the collective's chart-topping hit 21 Seconds, was told he must spend a minimum of 30 years in prison for shooting dead Colin Scarlett, his ex-girlfriend's new lover.
The common serjeant of London, Judge Brian Barker, told him: "You have taken a young life. You have used firearms in a situation which is all too familiar, with the inevitable results that many lives have been ruined. Gun use is the scourge of our streets and causes misery and distress. The message must be that it will not be tolerated."
The group's frontman, Megaman (pictured below) whose real name is Dwayne Vincent, was also charged with murder. But an Old Bailey jury failed to reach a verdict on him and he was remanded to await a retrial next year.
Morgan was a minor figure in the garage collective, whose 2001 single 21 seconds projected them from the streets of south London on to a worldwide stage.
During a row with Mr Scarlett, Morgan was beaten up in front of his sister and his former girlfriend Elisha McFarlane, the mother of his two children. Humiliated and bent on revenge, Morgan confronted Mr Scarlett in Wandsworth, south Lon don, close to the streets where members of So Solid grew up in a harsh urban culture often involving drugs and guns.
Morgan, the jury heard, knew Mr Scarlett had been involved with guns and had been seen wearing a single glove, said to be a sign that the wearer carries or uses guns. The prosecution said Vincent had decided to make Morgan's fight his own because he regarded himself as "something of a leader" after achieving celebrity status as the founder of the collective.
The two groups confronted each other on a Wandsworth estate, and in the gun battle that followed Morgan pulled out his pistol and fired several shots. Mr Scarlett fired back but was shot three times and died later in hospital. "It was a scene more reminiscent of the wild west than southwest London," Richard Horwell, prosecuting told the jury.
Morgan was convicted last week but sentencing was adjourned until yesterday. He admitted being on the estate at the time of the shooting but denied involvement in Mr Scarlett's death. The murder weapon was never found and Morgan claimed a third gunman had fired the shots which killed his rival. However, a ballistics expert said the trajectory of the bullets proved this could not be the case.
Asked why he had not gone to the police after the shooting, Morgan said: "I went to my mum. I am a mummy's boy." Morgan turned to his mother when he was convicted, looking up at the public gallery and shouting that he loved her before storming from the dock.
Ms McFarlane was in court for the trial. She also has a son by Mr Scarlett and is known to have confided her concerns about the day she will have to tell her two sons that the father of one killed the father of the other.
Source: The Guardian/ Press Release
