Gunman jailed over drive-by shooting murder

A gunman who shot dead an innocent father in a botched revenge attack linked to drug dealing has been jailed for life.

Dale Stogden, known as Brett, was shot in the chest while he was stood at a bus stop in Wakefield on 12 August 2025.

Leeds Crown Court was told Leyton Davies, who was found guilty of murder, fired the fatal shot from a passing car while out looking for rival drug dealers.

Sentencing him to a minimum term of 33 years, Mrs Justice Jennifer Eady said Stogden was a "gentle giant" and simply had the "misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Davies' co-accused Adam Ahmed, 21, and Marc Carter, 20, were each jailed for 12 years in March, having been found guilty of manslaughter.

The court was told Davies, of Hill Crest Avenue in Wakefield, had been involved in drug dealing for some 15 years and played a significant role in supplying heroin and cocaine in the Agbrigg area of the city.

Peter Moulson, prosecuting, said the background to the shooting was an ongoing feud with rival drug dealers, "the Scotter brothers".

He said one of the defendant's associates, a man named Duncan, had been assaulted by the rival dealers the day before the shooting.

Moulson said messages found on Davies' phone from Duncan had said they "needed to be taken out".

The prosecutor said on 12 August, Davies, Ahmed and Carter set off in a stolen Toyota to "locate the rival drug team".

The court heard the men were driving along Doncaster Road close to a BP petrol station when they spotted one of the brothers and Davies gave the instruction to slow down and pull over.

The defendant, who was armed with an illegally converted blank firing firearm, wound down the window and fired the shot, which hit Stogden.

The court heard that the 50-year-old, who had recently been given the all clear having been treated for lung cancer, collapsed at the scene and died in hospital.

The judge said: "Although he [Stogden] was not the target, there was clear premeditation to your actions.

"You had made you desire for revenge very clear."

Speaking about his drug dealing, the judge said Davies, who has previous convictions including for assault and possession of offensive weapon, was operating at a higher level and would give out orders to his co-accused.

She said his offending was made worse by the fact he had admitted to regularly carrying around the firearm "to support his business" and used it as "tool of your trade".

The judge added: "You said you were ashamed of what you'd done, but I've seen little evidence of a genuine sense of remorse."

As well as being jailed for the murder, he was given a four year jail term, to run concurrently, after admitting conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Speaking after the sentencing, Stogden's family said: "Although no sentence will ever be good enough in our eyes, the 33-year sentence given to the man who recklessly pulled the trigger Leyton Davies, goes towards giving us at least a little bit of closure."

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