The self-titled ‘Three Musketeers’ gang who chased a father through a village and stabbed him to death have been jailed.
Zack O’Keefe, 20, Harrison Carpenter, 20, and Joseph Dawe, 21, targeted Kieran Shepherd, 30, in broad daylight in Great Baddow, Essex, on October 15 last year.
The trio started chasing him as he walked his dog down Meadgate Avenue in the village near the city of Chelmsford.
They fatally stabbed Mr Shepherd, who has a three-year-old daughter, twice in the back, skewering his heart and one of his lungs, before leaving him for dead.
O’Keefe, from the Langdon Hills area of nearby town Basildon, has now been convicted of his murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years.
He wore a dark suit and clutched white rosary beads as he was handed his sentence at Chelmsford Crown Court today.
Carpenter, from Chelmsford, and Dawe, from Great Baddow, were both found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 11 and 10.5 years respectively.
Judge Christopher Morgan said Mr Shepherd posed ‘no threat’ to the gang and spent his final moments ‘literally running for his life’.
Zack O’Keefe, 20, Harrison Carpenter, 20, and Joseph Dawe, 21, targeted Kieran Shepherd (pictured), 30, in broad daylight in Great Baddow, Essex, on October 15 last year
The trio started chasing him (pictured, on CCTV footage) as he walked his dog down Meadgate Avenue in the village near the city of Chelmsford
O’Keefe (pictured), from the Langdon Hills area of nearby town Basildon, has now been convicted of his murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years
Testifying in his own defence, O’Keefe, from the Langdon Hills area of nearby town Basildon, told the jury he was ‘groomed’ as a teenager into working for a drugs gang.
When he was arrested, he claimed he had become hopelessly indebted to them – but police seized more than £5,000 in takings from his work as a drug dealer.
O’Keefe said he was forced to work from a trap house on the Meadgate Estate in Great Baddow, where Mr Shepherd was one of his customers.
On one occasion, he said, the father had arranged to buy two wraps of cocaine from him – but when they met, he pulled out a knife and took the drugs without paying.
Prosecutor Tracy Ayling KC argued this was the true motive for Mr Shepherd’s murder, saying O’Keefe chased him down and stabbed him deliberately.
But he insisted he and his friends bumped into their victim by chance, getting into a fight before O’Keefe used Mr Shepherd’s own knife against him in self-defence.
Mrs Ayling, however, countered there was no need to escalate to using the weapon, which was as long as 12in and left the victim with a wound 13cm to 15cm deep.
She said the three gym-going young men could easily have overpowered Mr Shepherd, who she described as ‘an eight-stone drug addict’.
And the lawyer argued O’Keefe in fact brought his own knife to stab his victim, before Carpenter began punching him – which the judge agreed with.
Judge Morgan also acknowledged Mr Shepherd was addicted to drugs, including heroin, and had previously resorted to armed robbery with a lock knife.
Mr Shepherd’s mother Julie tearfully read a victim impact statement to the court today.
She said her son was ‘not just a troubled drug addict’ – and will now never get to walk his daughter up the aisle.
‘My son had his struggles but he was kind, caring and always managed to make people laugh,’ she said.
‘I will never be the same person I was. I live every day with a huge loss that I know will stay with me forever.’
Turning to the three men in the dock, she continued: ‘He was murdered, callously and evil. He was left to die in the street with no thought of anyone going back to help him.
‘This is something I have to live with every day and I would like to think that you three will too.’
Carpenter (pictured), from Chelmsford, and Dawe, from Great Baddow, were both found guilty of manslaughter
Carpenter and Dawe (pictured) were sentenced to 11 and 10.5 years respectively
Jurors were shown CCTV footage of Mr Shepherd walking with his dog on a lead moments before he was chased by the three men, at 12.24pm that day.
He was found six minutes later by cleaner Holly Duffett, who was working at a block of flats near the attack. She later called 999.
She told the operator Mr Shepherd ‘wasn’t talking’ as she continued to reassure him she was getting help. He was later pronounced dead at the scene at 1.22pm.
Soon after, the gang, who referred to themselves as ‘The Three Musketeers’, burned clothing in woods in nearby Stock.
Jurors watched doorbell footage of the trio at Carpenter’s grandmother’s home in the village at 1.10pm.
They hid at a holiday park nearly 50 miles away, in the coastal village of Jaywick, near Clacton-on-Sea.
Carpenter handed himself in to police the next day as O’Keefe and Dawe fled across the country.
They made it to the village of Seifton, Shropshire, where they were arrested on October 18, three days after the killing.
All three denied murder at the four-week trial at Chelmsford Crown Court earlier this month.
Senior investigating officer, Detective Inspector Lydia George, said: ‘This is the culmination of nearly a year’s work to get justice for Kieran.
‘These three men showed no remorse, and all provided no-comment interviews when arrested.
‘They deliberately destroyed evidence and evaded our officers.
‘It didn’t work – our officers and the Crown Prosecution Service showed they were the only ones that could have attacked Kieran, and that none of them tried to stop the attack.
‘This involved a detailed CCTV timeline showing them chasing Kieran moments before he was killed and the car they were travelling in as it made its way across Essex.
‘Dozens of witness statements were taken from members of the public including those who tried desperately to save his life.
‘Throughout this investigation and court case, Kieran’s family have conducted themselves with incredible dignity in the face of the terrible details they have heard…
‘While [no sentence] can be passed down to [the gang] that will fill the void in the lives of those that loved Kieran, we hope it goes some way to helping his family come to terms with their loss.’
Speaking after the trio were convicted, Mr Shepherd’s mother Julie said: ‘As a family it has been a horrific ten months which we will have to live with forever.
‘We cannot thank Essex Police and the Crown Prosecution Service enough, they have worked so hard to bring my sons killers to justice.
‘We would like our privacy as a family to grieve for our precious Kieran.’
His father added: ‘We have endured an incredibly painful journey seeking justice for our beloved son.
‘While no verdict can ever bring him back, we are grateful that his life, his story, and his worth were acknowledged in this courtroom.
‘We would like to thank the police and CPS for their hard work and the witnesses for finding the strength to come forward.
‘Our family will continue to forever honour his memory and thank all those that have stood with us, offering love and support through this difficult time.’