Double murderer jailed for shooting dead taxi driver after argument over broken wing mirror

A drug dealer who shot dead a taxi driver after a fight over a broken wing mirror has been jailed for more than 30 years.

Ricardo Linton, 46, murdered father-of-four Mohammed Basharat in a "targeted execution" after the pair came to blows during a road rage incident the previous night.

The killer walked into the Bradford taxi office, where Mr Basharat, 33, was based, and shot him dead.

“You ended his life and brought life-long misery to his family. The pain will stay with them forever," said Mr Justice Lavender in sentencing at the city’s crown court.

Jurors had heard that Linton was already on the run for another murder in the US at the time of the West Yorkshire killing.

The two men had been involved in a brawl - that Mr Basharat got the better of - after their wing mirrors had clipped on 19 October 2001.

As he left the scene, Linton was heard to say "I'll come back and get you". The next day when he walked into the taxi office in Bradford’s Park Lane wearing a balaclava and carrying the gun.

He short his victim twice in the head before turning the weapon on another driver, Jamshad Khan, who only escaped after it failed to fire.

Linton then remained on the run for two years until he was arrested in Jamaica for the 1993 shooting of Jose Rosa in New York.

He was convicted of murder and jailed by a US court for 25 years to life in 2005 and extradited to the UK last year.

Referring to Mr Rosa's death, Mr Justice Lavender said: "He was killed by a gunman as he sat in a car with friends who approached the car and shot him without saying a word and shot him in the head while he lay on the floor.

"That was you who executed him, and you did it again in this case in the same way."

He added that the killer – who had been a cocaine dealer – would not be eligible for parole until he is 77, by which time he will have spent a total of 50 years in jail.

“There are no mitigating factors,” the judge said.

Additional reporting by PA