David Bieber
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David Francis Bieber (born 3 February 1966) also known under the alias Nathan Wayne Coleman is an American convicted murderer. A fugitive from the United States, he murdered PC Ian Broadhurst and attempted to murder PCs Neil Roper and James Banks on 26 December 2003 in Leeds, England, sparking a nationwide search before he was captured. He was given a life sentence and the trial judge recommended that he should never be released.
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[edit] The Florida shootings
Bieber is originally from Fort Myers, Florida, the son of a middle school principal. After leaving school, he was briefly a US Marine before being discharged for going AWOL.
Bieber became a drug dealer and bodybuilder. On 9 February 1995 a fellow bodybuilder, Markus Mueller, was shot in Fort Myers. Police arrested Bieber, thinking he had hired a hitman, but later released him due to lack of evidence. In November 1995, Bieber's former girlfriend Michelle Marsh was attacked by the same gunman who had attacked Mueller. All four shots missed. Bieber fled the state, assuming the identity of Nathan Wayne Coleman through a stolen passport, before escaping the country in 1996.
[edit] The Leeds police shootings
Bieber entered the United Kingdom on September 26, 1996 through the port of Ramsgate, using the stolen passport. He was given six-month visa, but it was extended until his marriage to Denise Horsley in Kendal, Cumbria in March 1997.
In 1998, Bieber arrived in Yorkshire, where he worked as a nightclub doorman. He also acquired an arsenal of illegal firearms. In 2001, his wife petitioned for divorce and a decree absolute was granted in 5 May 2002.
On 26 December 2003, on the border between the Gipton and Oakwood areas of Leeds, traffic policemen Ian Broadhurst and Neil Roper saw Bieber's car parked outside a betting shop. They identified the number plates as false, and asked him to accompany them to the police car, where Bieber sat in the back seat. The officers were uneasy and so called for backup which they received from colleague James Banks.
Roper then moved to handcuff Bieber, who - facing imprisonment for various offences in the UK and possible extradition to Florida - drew a 9mm handgun and fired four shots at the unarmed police officers, who tried to flee. Roper was hit twice in the shoulder and abdomen, but managed to get away. Broadhurst was shot once in the back and immobilised. Banks escaped injury after a bullet hit his radio. Bieber then walked over to where Broadhurst was lying, and shot him in the head at point blank range while the officer pleaded for his life. It was the first fatal shooting of an English police officer in over eight years (PC Philip Walter of the Metropolitan Police was shot dead on 18 April 1995).
[edit] Nationwide search
The shootings sparked a nationwide hunt for the killer. On 27 December Bieber took a taxi journey in Bradford, and on 28 December armed police raided Bieber's flat.
Bieber was arrested by armed police in a hotel room near Gateshead at 2.25am on 31 December. He had dyed his hair ginger. Under his bed, he had a pistol ready to fire. The next day, he was charged with murder and two accounts of attempted murder.
[edit] Trial
The trial was held at Newcastle Crown Court and ended on 2 December 2004. Bieber denied murder, two counts of attempted murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and possession of 200 9 mm pistol cartridges. Bieber admitted possession of 298 9 mm cartridges without a firearms certificate.
The prosecution presented evidence from witnesses, identification of Bieber's voice and DNA evidence.
Bieber's defence was that it was his friend who looked like him, also from Florida, that committed the offences and had asked him to look after the murder weapon. Bieber said he could not name this friend for fear of reprisals.
Bieber was convicted on one count of murder and two counts of attempted murder.
The judge, Mr Justice Moses, told Bieber he had shown "no remorse or understanding of the brutality" of his crime, and the aggravating feature in the case was that Bieber did not need to shoot Broadhurst through the head, noting:
- "You had already disabled him and he was defenceless. You could have escaped then but you chose to wait and fire a second shot at point blank range. To shoot and kill an officer in such circumstances, doing no more than trying to serve us all, is an attack on all of us
- "It must be acknowledged that he might have died as a result of your first shot, but you made certain of his death."
Bieber was given three life sentences. The judge recommended that Bieber should never be released, making him only the 25th person in British legal history to be recommended for lifelong imprisonment. It was the first time such a recommendation had been made since the Home Secretary lost his power to set minimum terms.
Should he be released, the State of Florida has said it would seek his extradition, though he could not face the death penalty due to extradition treaties. [1]
On 24 October 2006, the Appeal Court rejected a bid from Bieber for his convictions to be overturned, but ruled that he could appeal against the trial judge's recommendation that he should never be released.
In February 2007, Bieber's case was delayed due to a European Court of Justice review on whether lifelong imprisonment is a violation of human rights. If this case was successful, it would result in Bieber and almost 30 other "whole life" sentence prisoners having their cases recalled to court for a new minimum term to be set.
