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Thug guilty of killing boxer over smoking
Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent8 Oct 2008
A thug was convicted today at the Old Bailey of shooting dead a former British heavyweight boxing champion in a Fulham club for telling him to put out his cigarette.
Kanyanta Mulenga, 23, smuggled a gun into Chateau 6 club in his trousers. Within minutes he had opened fire hitting James Oyebola in the neck.
Mr Oyebola, who won a Commonwealth bronze in 1986, died in hospital without regaining consciousness. The 6ft 9in giant, described as “calm and happy”, had been asking clubbers not to smoke in the courtyard in July last year.
Mulenga, of Putney, was found guilty of murder. Rene McKoy, 20, of Battersea, and Dean Francis, 24, of Wandsworth, were cleared of murder and affray earlier in the trial. Both later gave evidence against Mulenga, who will be sentenced tomorrow.
