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A murderer who sneaked into a family home and shot and killed a mother of nine and her sleeping nephew in a botched revenge coup faces a life sentence after being convicted of the double murder.
Student Bervil Kalikaka-Ekofo, 21, and his aunt Annie Ekofo, 53, were executed by Obina Ezeoke, 28, after he sneaked through the front door without a key in September 2016.
Ezeoke carried out the revenge hit after rivals shared images of him being attacked on Snapchat, including Ms Ekofo’s son Ryan Efey, 22, Old Bailey heard.
Mr. Efey was probably the intended target, but Ezeoke decided that he would kill anyone on the floor.
Jurors in May 2018 and March last year did not reach verdicts, even though most jurors support a conviction.
In 2017, the trial was halted after a judge was forced to withdraw due to agonizing back pain.
Prosecutors made the rare decision to hold a fifth trial after their last hearing collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic in March.
Student Bervil Kalikaka-Ekofo, 21, (left) was shot in the neck by the killer, prompting his aunt Annie Besala Ekofo, 53, (right) to investigate. They shot him in the chest
Traditionally, a defendant was only tried twice if a jury disagreed.
Crown court convictions can only be approved if jurors give a majority verdict of 11-1, 10-2, 10-1, or 9-1.
Defense attorneys for the killer had opposed a fifth trial, saying “enough is enough.”
In an earlier legal argument, Ezeoke’s attorney, James Scobie QC, had said: ‘We are in uncharted territory. To continue with this case would be oppressive.
‘If there is an expression to summarize this case, it really is’ unproven’.
“The reality is that this is where we are after almost four years of testing.”
“Some might say that giving a fifth chance was in itself a step too far.
“The system has been unable to produce a result one way or another.
‘Is it really correct and appropriate that this defendant has the dire prospect of a fifth attempt trying to get a conviction over the line? We submit, enough is enough.
But prosecutor Mark Heywood QC successfully argued the “public interest” in a case “of this exceptional type and such gravity.”
Obina Ezeoke, 28, was convicted today of the double murder in her fifth trial, following the brutal shooting in North London in 2016.
Ezeoke fired a bullet into the back of the head of psychology student Bervil with an old-fashioned western-style revolver as in her apartment in East Finchley, north London.
He then turned around and hit the victim’s aunt, Annie Ekofo, 53, on the chest with Smith and Wesson.44 when she came out of her room dressed only in her underwear.
Neither Bervil nor Annie were the intended targets, the court was told.
Ezeoke carried out the killings as part of a ‘vendetta of violence’ before fleeing the scene in a Vauxhall Meriva around 6.30am.
He claimed that he had been at the Grahame Park property in North London with four friends at the time of the murders.
The killer claimed that the bullet residue particles discovered in the getaway car, which according to the evidence had been bought and insured by him under a false name, came from a different shooting when the vehicle had been used by others.
But an Old Bailey jury convicted him today of the two murders after deliberating for 41 hours and 10 minutes for eight days.
Ezeoke slumped in his seat as the guilty verdicts were read.
Ms. Justice Cutts placed the double murderer in pretrial detention and will sentence him on October 1.
Prosecutor Mark Heywood said: ‘Ezeoke went there quite deliberately, with a gun and, of course, enough ammunition to use, attack and kill one of the young men in the family.
His hatred was such that he did not waver when faced with a second person and simply took his life as well. Both lives were totally innocent.
Mr. Kalikaka-Ekofo was visiting the flat in East Finchley on short notice for just one night, so he was not one of those expected to be there.
“It was two separate murders in a short space of time,” Mr. Heywood said.
No one could, or will, as we understand it, possibly suggest otherwise.
In fact, it was about executions.
A trial at the Old Bailey heard Ezeoke sneak into the family home in East Finchley, London and targeted the aunt and nephew as an act of revenge, after a rival gang, including Ms Ekofo’s son, targeted him. attack and post the video on Snapchat.
Mr. Heywood added: “There has been a trend to modify ammunition to fit older weapons like the revolver and the general probability is that this is what was done here.
“One of the typical weapons you see in a western movie.”
Ms Ekofo, who came to the UK with her husband from Congo in 1991, lived with her family in the Elmshurst Crescent flat in East Finchley.
Four other people were also in the house, but were unharmed in the attack.
Mr Heywood told the court: ‘Just after sunrise in early fall 2016, a murderer quietly entered a family home on the second floor.
‘He had waited until that moment to be able to enter the block.
By his great luck, the door of the house was not closed.
Mr. Kalikaka-Ekofo was only visiting his aunt’s apartment on short notice that night, it emerged at the trial.
‘The design of that floor, reflected by others on the same estate, was probably known and clearly understood.
‘At first, none of the six people sleeping inside heard anything at all.
The killer advanced to his left and then into a bedroom.
There, right in front of him, was a young man stretched out on a thin mattress on the floor under a duvet, his head closer to the door supported by pillows.
To the killer, this was as good a target as he could hope for, a young man from this house, this house, of just the right age.
He crawled forward, gun in hand.
His weapon was deadly, perfect for hiding in tight spaces, repeatedly if necessary. It was a revolver.
The assassin raised the barrel high enough and placed it on the back of the sleeping head.
And then, with deliberation and purpose as cowardly as murderous, he simply pulled the trigger.
“The silence of the house, the neighborhood, was shattered and life was immediately taken away.”
At the sound of the ‘noise and hell she had just unleashed’, Ms Ekofo left her bedroom at the end of the hall to investigate.
“The killer did not hesitate,” said Mr. Heywood.
‘Given his purpose and because he couldn’t allow himself to be seen, and so they caught him, it suited him to use the weapon again.
Rather than just pick it up, say, to threaten or protect himself, or just turn and run out the front door, he instead aimed the gun a second time and pulled the trigger, even as the nearly naked woman leaned away from danger. Lethal that must have been obvious.
“His objective was central, towards the chest and the vital organs.
For the second time in a minute, the killer took his own life.
He then fled back to a black vehicle and returned to ‘safe ground’ on another property, the court heard.
Annie Efoko was killed while investigating the sound of the gunshot that had killed her nephew, a trial was heard at the Old Bailey.
Ezeoke, homeless, denied but was convicted of two counts of murder by an 11-1 majority.
Sally-Anne Russell from CPS said: ‘This was an execution of two family members in the space of about a minute. Obina Ezeoke’s actions have devastated a family.
Both victims were completely innocent.
No one saw exactly how these events unfolded, but the prosecution’s case included evidence of Ezeoke’s control of the car, CCTV footage of the car traveling to and from the scene, as well as a gun case discovered under the bed. of Ezeoke, evidence of gunfire and evidence of the ongoing dispute between Ezeoke and other family members involved.
Although Ezeoke denied any involvement in the murders, the jury accepted the prosecution’s case and convicted Ezeoke of both murders.
“I hope that the family and friends of Annie Besala Ekofo and Bervil Kalikala-Ekofo can be satisfied that justice has been served.”
Ezeoke will return to sentence on October 1.
