Age: 45 (75 after sentence)
Sex: male
Crime: murder
Date Of Sentence: 11 Aug 2021 (for 30 years)
End Of Full Sentence: 11 Aug 2051
Place: Little Horton Taxis, Park Lane, Little Horton, Bradford
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Ricardo Linton was convicted of the murder of Mohammed Basharat 33. He was also convicted of attempted murder.
Mohammed Basharat was shot at Little Horton Taxis where he worked in Park Lane, Little Horton, Bradford, at 8pm on 20 October 2001.
He was shot twice in the head by Ricardo Linton with a .38 calibre handgun. He had walked into the Little Horton Taxis office wearing a green balaclava and fired four shots, hitting Mohammed Basharat in the head and mouth.
His murder was described as exact and clinical and it was noted that no words were spoken.
He had been involved in a minor scuffle the day before at 6pm with Ricardo Linton who had been driving a Renault Clio with another man when their wing mirrors had touched. Mohammed Basharat had been driving his Vauxhall Cavalier car at the time. During the scuffle Mohammed Basharat had been forced to restrain Ricardo Linton who then threatened to kill him. Ricardo Linton and his friend left their car behind and walked off but shouted to Mohammed Basharat, 'you don't know who you are messing with. I'm going to kill you'.
The police said the description of the man that had shot Mohammed Basharat was similar to the description of the man that Mohammed Basharat had had the scuffle with the day before. The gunman was said to have been about 5ft 9ins tall, slim and wearing a dark coloured anorak, a pair of black jeans, and a balaclava or scarf over his face. It was thought that he might have been wearing gloves too.
After shooting Mohammed Basharat, the man was said to have pointed the gun at other members of staff who said they heard the gun click, after which the gunman left. At the trial it was heard that his weapon had jammed and that his attempt to shoot them was attempted murder for which he was convicted.
After the murder Ricardo Linton fled to Jamaica. However, he was arrested there soon after by the US police and taken to the United States where he was convicted in 2005 of the murder of a man in New York.
In December 2014, Ricardo Linton, who at the time was serving a prison sentence for a shooting in the United States, was identified as a prime suspect in Mohammed Basharat's murder and arrangements were made to extradite him to the United Kingdom to face trial. The extradition order was said to have been the first of its kind since the 2003 US-UK bilateral extradition treaty that was ratified in 2007 and allowed either country to apply for a serving prisoner to be extradited to stand trial in that country with the agreement that, after the conclusion of the trial, they return to the original country to serve the rest of their sentence.
Ricardo Linton had been living in Little Horton and Girlington at the time of the murder and had regularly gone to the Young Lions Club in Lumb Lane, but at the time had refused to speak to the police.
Mohammed Basharat had been a taxi driver for 14 years. He was 6ft 5in tall.
At the retrial the prosecution said that Ricardo Linton was 'prepared to execute another man in cold blood because his pride had been bruised. He was plainly a man with a very short temper, and a man who could not stand coming off second best, but most strikingly, whilst he may have been physically too weak to beat his opponent in a fair fight, he was willing to use a firearm to exact a wholly disproportionate revenge when he felt slighted'.
