A MAN was fatally shot in the back after being pursued by three assailants in a “targeted, persistent and planned attack”, a murder trial was told.

Lee Pettite, 22, is said to have been shot twice by Christopher Stubbs – once in the foot and once in the back - following an earlier argument which led to a confrontation between the two men.

Stubbs admits murder, but co-accused Luke Lovell and Gordon Smith, who are said to have engaged in a “pincer movement” in pursuit of the victim, deny the charge and are on trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Prosecutor Nick Johnson said the incident, on March 1, in the Bankfields area of Eston, near Middlesbrough, culminated in the defendant Stubbs shooting Mr Pettite in the back as he was running away, the bullet passing through his right lung and out of his chest, killing him.

He told the jury they could be sure the three defendants intended Mr Pettite to suffer at least serious harm.

Mr Lovell and Mr Smith maintain they had no idea Stubbs would shoot the victim and had no desire to involve themselves in the dispute.

Mr Johnson said Stubbs had argued earlier that morning with Mr Pettite and he recruited Mr Lovell and Mr Smith to head to where the victim lived with his mother and family.

He said they had with them a rifle, ammunition and other weapons including sticks, a cosh and a golf club.

Later that afternoon Stubbs shot the victim for the first time - at about 4.30pm - when the pair met for a pre-arranged fight on a field.

Mr Johnson described how a 12-year-old boy witnessed the confrontation between Mr Pettite and Stubbs.

After being seen to take something from his jacket, Stubbs, he said, shot Mr Pettit through the foot, before running off.

However Mr Johnson said that he did not leave the scene, instead he hung around for half an hour and was joined by the other two defendants.

He said the three of them spotted Mr Pettite again at about 5pm and chased him for well over 200 metres, past a children’s play area.

He said the defendants engaged in a “pincer movement” preventing the victim from heading onto a main road.

One woman saw a man “running for his life”, the prosecutor said, heard a bang and then saw Mr Pettite walking towards her saying: “Help me I’ve been shot”, before he fell.

A 999 call was made and paramedics were dispatched to attend to the wounded man at about 5.15pm, but he was not breathing and had no pulse.

The court heard how such was the urgency of Mr Pettite’s condition a doctor attempted open chest surgery in order to pump his heart manually, before an air ambulance took him to the James Cook University Hospital.

But he died despite numerous resuscitation attempts.

Mr Johnson said: “After the shooting the three of them fled together and changed their mobile phones. The weapons, including the gun, have never been found.”

The prosecutor told the jury that while Stubbs alone pulled the trigger, the defendants were “all in it together as a joint enterprise”.

He said that during a search police found a bullet at Stubbs’ home with his DNA profile on it. Bullet fragments removed from Mr Pettite’s toe were of a similar type to the bullet found.

Mr Johnson also said that Mr Pettite’s brother, Ashleigh Carroll, had seen Stubbs with a sawn off 22 bolt action rifle two weeks before the fatal incident.

Following their arrests all three men were positively picked out in identification parades.

Mr Pettite, who lived in Woodcock Close, Eston, was said to have agreed to a fight with Stubbs on a field and was given an old machete to bring with him.

The night before he was killed, the 22-year-old, who had previously been in prison for robbery, had seemed paranoid, complaining that someone was coming to get him.

Mr Johnson said phone evidence indicated Stubbs and Mr Lovell having taken a taxi to the Bankfields area in the early hours of March 1.

Records showed the taxi halting for a few minutes in Woodcock Close at about 12.48am before leaving.

Mr Johnson said Lee Pettite’s brother also recalled three men walking past the family’s living room window before looking in.

The court was told that a plan was formulated between the three defendants to attack Mr Pettite and they called twice at his home on the day of his death, only to find he wasn’t in.

He said the victim’s mother Vanessa Prest later saw Mr Lovell with what she described as a pole tucked into his trousers and Stubbs with “something like a crowbar or big stick” in his hand.

He said she called her son and he told her to "lock the doors as they carry guns".

Mr Johnson said Mr Smith was also present when threats were made against Mr Pettite with Stubbs saying: “I’m going to chop him up, I’m going to f***ing kill him”.

Before the start of the prosecution case, The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Simon Bourne-Arton told the jury that they must put any emotion and sympathy aside and had to be “hard-hearted” when considering the evidence.

Stubbs, 21, of Tyne Street, South Bank, near Middlesbrough, has been remanded in custody before his sentencing.

The trial of Mr Lovell, 22, of Wilton Way, Whale Hill, Eston and Mr Smith, 23, of Laburnum Road, Teesville, Middlesbrough, continues.