Life in jail for Sam Davies murderers

The four Lincoln men convicted of the murder of city resident Sam Davies have today (Tuesday, April 12) begun life sentences.

Joe Jameson and Daniel Heydari were told that they will serve a minimum of 25 years.

Eimantas Gochman will serve a minimum of 24 years and for Billy Gill it will be 23. 

They were back at Nottingham Crown Court for sentencing, six days after a jury unanimously found them guilty of the murder of 23-year-old Mr Davies in Lincoln in May 2021.

Trial judge, The Honourable Mr Justice Goss, said: “Sam Davies was a gifted young man, both intellectually and as a sportsman, who intended to return to complete his university studies last autumn.”

He added: “His family will never know what might have been and plans made will remain unfulfilled.

“Nothing that this court can do can undo what has been done and the appalling and tragic consequences of his death.” 

Mr Davies had been lured to a park between Coleridge Gardens and Browning Drive in the St Giles area of the city at about 10.45pm on May 27.

Gochman stabbed him twice in the chest.

Open heart surgery was performed on Mr Davies in Coleridge Gardens and again at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham but he died four hours after the attack.

Heydari, a 25-year-old University of Lincoln graduate, was a drugs wholesaler in the city and supplied Jameson for his own cannabis dealing business.

Mr Davies had worked for Jameson’s supply line but the pair fell out and Mr Davies subsequently stole about £8,000 of drugs from him.

The trial heard that a second theft by Mr Davies had been mooted.

Jameson, 24, and Heydari got a phone number for 20-year-old Gochman from Gill, a contact of Heydari’s. Gill, 21, vouched for Gochman as someone suitable to carry out the hit.

A £5,000 fee was said to have been agreed.

Gochman, 20, of Sturton Close; Jameson, of Whitehall Terrace; Heydari, of Chestnut Street; and Gill, of Hatcliffe Gardens, had each denied murder but were found guilty following a 13-week trial.

Jameson was also found guilty of making a threat to kill Mr Davies on the day he was stabbed, May 27.

Jameson’s barrister, Karim Khalil QC, told the sentencing hearing that his lay client had been “completely broken” by the verdict and was “entirely inconsolable”.

Mr Khalil said: “He understood immediately the enormity of the impact of this matter, both upon Sam Davies, of course, and the wider community, upon his family and himself.

“It was not so much a self-pitying that was being expressed but an acknowledgment of the immense consequences of the verdicts to all.”

The hearing was also told that Heydari had written a note too, in which he said: “To know that I’ve brought so much grief to my own family, friends and younger brother is devastating.

“Nothing can be undone and certainly lives have been wasted.”

The hearing was told that Jameson and Heydari had no previous convictions and Gochman had received cautions for possession of a class A drug (cocaine) and threatening behaviour.

Gill had two convictions for possession of a knife in a public place for which he received a concurrent suspended sentence of four months.

These were activated to run concurrently with his life sentence.

Eric Kesel, 19, of Browning Drive, Charlie Wakefield, 21, of Broxholme Gardens, and a 17-year-old boy, who cannot legally be identified due to his age, were found not guilty of murder.

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