A man has been convicted of the murder of Morlan Steede in 2017.

Kiari Tucker, 27, was found guilty of the unlawful killing of Mr Steede, 35, as well as the use of a firearm to commit an indictable offence.

Tucker did not give any reaction as the verdicts, which took approximately seven hours to reach, were read aloud last night.

Ricky Steede, the father of Morlan Steede, said after the trial: “I am happy with the verdicts.”

Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe adjourned the case until March 28 and remanded Tucker in custody until then.

Tucker had initially denied the offence, which took place on November 3, 2017.

Over the course of the six-week trial, the jury was shown CCTV footage from Court Street and Deepdale from the night of the murder.

The footage showed Tucker on Court Street wearing a black jacket and black pants with a white stripe until about 7.54pm, when he was taken by bike to the Deepdale area.

A witness who was with Mr Steede and other men that night confirmed that Tucker had come into the area and greeted those present before leaving.

Tucker returned to Court Street at about 8.11pm, but after a few minutes he walked into the Elliott Street parking lot and was not seen on Court Street again for another hour and a half.

Seconds after Tucker left Court Street, a motorcycle was seen travelling along King Street from the direction of the parking lot with two men on it.

At about 9.11pm, CCTV footage from Deepdale appeared to show a figure in dark clothing and a helmet walking through the area.

The same camera recorded a man in a white shirt running down One Way Deepdale towards Parsons Road, followed by a person dressed all in black, at about 9.40pm.

As they ran, flashes of light were seen coming from the outstretched arm of the person in black.

The court heard that Mr Steede suffered four gunshot wounds, with the fatal shot passing through his left lung and heart.

At 9.53pm, Tucker was seen walking back to Court Street from Angle Street wearing a white T-shirt.

He was arrested the next afternoon after police executing a search warrant in Warwick found him under a pile of clothing in a bedroom closet.

He was swabbed for gunshot residue and tests found several particles characteristic of GSR on the palms of both of his hands.

Additional particles were found on the sneakers he was wearing, along with a pair of jeans and a handkerchief recovered from his home.

Carrington Mahoney, for the Crown, said Tucker was the “designated gunman” for the murder of Mr Steede and that his trip to Deepdale earlier in the evening was to stake out his target.

He said that an expert witness had identified similarities in how Tucker and the man seen in Deepdale walked and that mobile-phone signals had shown he could have been in the area when the crime took place.

Mr Mahoney added that when Tucker returned to Court Street, he appeared to be sweating profusely and walked aimlessly, looking over his shoulder.

Charles Richardson, for Tucker, argued that the gait evidence was irrelevant and that the GSR found on his client could have been transferred from the armed officers who arrested him, the police car he was transported in, or surfaces in Hamilton Police Station.

He also said the timeline laid out by the Crown would have given Tucker only 18 seconds to change his shoes and pants if he was the pillion passenger seen on the King Street footage.

Mr Richardson argued that prosecutors had attempted to create a narrative that painted Tucker as the guilty party with circumstantial evidence, but added that innocent narratives could also be drawn from the same evidence.

The trial was Tucker’s third for the murder.

At his first trial in 2019, he was found guilty of the murder of Mr Steede and sentenced to serve 25 years behind bars.

In that trial, Tucker elected to give evidence, telling the court that he had gone to Court Street to sell crack cocaine and, that evening, had travelled to Deepdale to buy cannabis.

He said that after briefly returning to Court Street, he went to a house in Middletown to relax.

Tucker said that he later returned to Court Street, accidentally leaving his jacket behind in Middletown, but left after hearing that there had been a shooting in Deepdale.

He denied any involvement in the murder, but said he could not explain how GSR came to be on his hands or clothing.

In 2020, the Court of Appeal set aside the conviction on the basis that the judge in the case had misdirected the jury during his summation.

The case returned to the courts for a retrial in 2022, but ended with a hung jury.

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