A 22-year-old man was killed in front of his own home on Halloween by three assailants, who were sentenced to life in prison.
Tuviah Thompson-Hordle, Charles Lynch, and Carlos Fonseca stood before the judge after a five-week trial that resulted in the trio being found guilty of murder after two of them carried out a knife assault.
Reece Heffernan, 22, was attacked in Tilehurst, Reading, and was fatally stabbed in the chest. The court previously heard how Fonseca, 24, and Thompson-Hordle, 18, planned the crime.
Defendant Madison Henderson, 19, of Kings Road in Reading, was found guilty of conspiring to obstruct justice by tampering with the evidence as well as of conspiring to distribute a prohibited substance classified as a class B.
Damian Wozniak, a 19-year-old from Kings Road, already guilty to the same two crimes during a prior hearing.
Hamzah Ahmed, 19, was also found not guilty of murder but had previously pleaded to one count of conspiring to provide class B drugs.
Additionally, Umer Arshad, 24, was found not guilty of plotting to obstruct justice or supply drugs.
Nicholas Heffernan, the victim’s father, stated: “On October 31, Reece and I were together, and we were discussing about going on vacation to Spain with his brothers. We were all ecstatic.
‘That was the last time I saw Reece alive. One hour later the police told me he was dead. I live my life in a daydream. I find myself staring into space thinking about his death.’
Defending Lynch, Tyrone Smith said: ‘This was a group attack. There were two people armed with knives and it is accepted that one of those people was Charles. There was an element of planning. There is no evidence that he arranged the car.’
