The court has heard that James Cooper, 25, from Hampton Lucy, near Warwick, and James Kouzaris, 24, from Northampton, were killed when they walked into Newtown in Sarasota in April last year.

James Cooper James Kouzaris had been shot six times.

Opening the prosecution case after three days of jury selection at Sarasota Court, Assistant State Attorney Ed Brodsky said friends Mr Kouzaris and Mr Cooper were in the second week of a three-week holiday.

The men had been out for a meal with Mr Cooper's parents, then went drinking on their own.

The pair left the Gator Club in downtown Sarasota, where they had been drinking, at about 2am.

Shawn Tyson in the courtroom in Florida

He said when police and fire and rescue services arrived at the scene, on Carver Court, in the public housing project known as The Courts, they found the men on either side of the road.

They had been shot dead.

Prosecutor Ed Brodsky

Mr Brodsky said James Cooper was shirtless, clutching his shirt in his hand, his blue jeans pulled down about mid-thigh level, and still possessing his wallet, money and his cellphone and his camera.

Across the street police found the body of James Kouzaris with his pants pulled down to the thigh level, also shirtless and with his money still in his possession.

Prosecutor Brodsky said:

"Autopsies showed Mr Cooper was shot four times and Mr Kouzaris had been shot twice in the back."

A man who was sprung from a prison van on his way to Liverpool Crown Court eight months ago was the head of a criminal gang that carried out "a campaign of shooting and bombing", a court has heard. Anthony Downes, 26, had been wanted since last July after escaping from the van. He was facing trial for conspiracy to possess firearms with intent to endanger life and conspiracy to cause damage with intent to endanger life. Downes was arrested in The Netherlands on Friday, where he remains in custody. His co-defendant Kirk Bradley, 26, from Birkey Lane, Formby, who also escaped from the prison van, is still wanted by Merseyside Police. Nicholas Johnson, prosecuting, told the sentencing hearing at Woolwich Crown Court in London: "This was a campaign of shooting and bombing carried out by an organised criminal gang. At the head of the gang were Bradley and Downes." Downes, of no fixed address, was arrested in the Dutch province of Zeelands on suspicion of possession of a firearm and as a result of an outstanding European arrest warrant. He was said to be at the top of a gang which carried out attacks for others in the Liverpool underworld. Last month Woolwich Crown Court heard that the home of a wealthy businessman living in the same street as Liverpool football manager Kenny Dalglish was the target of two shootings. John Ball hired a security guard to keep watch on his home in Southport, Merseyside following the attacks in March and June 2009, the court was told. He is also believed to have been the target of a failed grenade attack on July 26 2009. Before the retrial, three of Downes' and Bradley's co-accused admitted charges of possessing firearms and causing criminal damage with intent to endanger life. Gary Wilson, 27, of Promenade in Southport, Joseph Farrell, 23, of Brandearth Hey in Stockbridge Village, Knowsley and Craig Riley, 25, of Boode Croft, also in Stockbridge Village, are all awaiting their sentences. Co-defendant Joseph Preston, 45, of Tewkesbury Close in West Derby, will be sentenced after admitting a standalone offence of possessing a firearm. Mr Justice Henriques adjourned the hearing and sentencing is due to take place on Friday morning.

James “Whitey’’ Bulger’s girlfriend, Catherine Greig, is considering pleading guilty to charges of helping the gangster evade capture for more than 16 years, according to several relatives of Bulger’s alleged victims. Steven Davis, whose sister Debra was one of 19 people allegedly slain by Bulger, said a victims’ advocate for the US attorney’s office told him Friday that Greig’s lawyers have indicated that she wants to plead guilty to the single charge of conspiracy to harbor a fugitive. “There is no plea bargain,’’ said Davis, adding that he has been told that Greig has not been given a deal by prosecutors and faces up to five years in prison on the charge. Related 11/20/11: The long, unlikely journey of Cathy Greig It is unclear whether Greig could be forced to testify against Bulger, 82, a longtime FBI informant who is scheduled to stand trial in November in a sweeping federal racketeering case. That case alleges the South Boston crime boss killed 19 people in the 1970s and 1980s. A spokeswoman for the US attorney’s office declined to comment on the potential plea, and Greig’s lawyer, Kevin J. Reddington of Brockton, could not be reached. Greig, 60, is scheduled to stand trial May 7 and is expected to appear Wednesday in US District Court in Boston for a hearing on her case. ‘I have no animosity toward her.’ Bill St. Croix, whose sister was allegedly strangled by Bulger and St. Croix’s father “If that’s what she wants to do is plead guilty, what else can you do but accept that?’’ said Davis, adding that he would not be disappointed if there is no trial in Greig’s case because she is not charged with any of the slayings and has no prior record. “Get rid of her [case], and we can all focus on him, Whitey.’’ Patricia Donahue, whose husband Michael was allegedly shot and killed by Bulger in 1982 on the South Boston waterfront, said Friday that she was disappointed by the prospect that Greig would resolve her case without being compelled to testify against Bulger. “I’m not happy,’’ Donahue said. Greig’s sister, Margaret McCusker, answered the door at her South Boston apartment Friday night, but would not speak with a reporter. Prosecutors have asked relatives of Bulger’s alleged victims to meet with them Monday to talk about the proposed plea and any objections they may have, said Davis, whose 26-year-old sister was allegedly strangled by Bulger in 1981. Bulger, who fled just before his January 1995 federal racketeering indictment after being warned by his former FBI handler that he was about to be arrested, was a fixture on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list. He was finally captured on June 22 in Santa Monica, Calif., with Greig, a former dental hygienist who lived in South Boston and Quincy. The FBI found more than $800,000 cash and 30 weapons hidden inside the walls of the rent-controlled apartment where the couple had lived as Charles and Carol Gasko for at least 13 years, according to the FBI. They also found numerous false identities allegedly used by the couple. In court last November, prosecutors said they planned to bring additional charges against Greig within a few weeks, possibly involving the weapons and fake identities. But no new charges been brought against her. “I would like to see her charged with the guns and the money they found in California,’’ Patricia Donahue said. “I don’t really care about her [Greig], but I’m not happy with the way the government is handling this.’’ Donahue’s son, Shawn, said his family was hoping prosecutors could explain to them the status of the potential charges against Greig stemming from the discovery of the guns and cash in the apartment. Prosecutors allege that Greig joined Bulger on the run in early 1995 and helped him evade capture by running errands for him, picking up his prescriptions, and paying their utility bills. “If she’s just pleading out to the harboring charge, she’ll be getting off easy,’’ Shawn Donahue said. He said his family also wants to know if Greig can be compelled to testify against Bulger. Since they were returned to Boston last year, Greig has remained jailed without bail at a Rhode Island facility, and Bulger is being held at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. Bill St. Croix, whose 26-year-old sister allegedly was strangled in 1985 by Bulger and St. Croix’s father, Stephen “The Rifleman’’ Flemmi, said Greig has the right to plead guilty and he does not hold her responsible for his sister’s death. “I have no animosity toward her,’’ said St. Croix. “Her going to jail is not going to benefit anybody. I get no just deserts seeing this woman suffer.’’ Greig’s attorney, Reddington, has argued in court that her only crime was falling in love with Bulger and that she had no knowledge of any of his crimes. He also said she would not cooperate against Bulger. St. Croix said he believed Greig would cooperate against Bulger only if he advised her to do so to win some leniency. “I imagine she’s old school . . . and is going to keep her mouth shut and take one for the team,’’ St. Croix said. “I don’t think she would cooperate against Jimmy unless Jimmy and her had discussed this prior.’’

Citizens throughout Toronto fear for their safety if they co-operate with police after dramatic messages and overt attacks — including bullets being left on the doorsteps of witnesses and drive-by shootings through their windows, a police expert told court Wednesday. "There is nothing nice about the code of silence at all," Sergeant Gavin Jansz, a Toronto police officer, testified at the murder trial of a man accused of shooting dead a Crown witness who previously had fingered him in another shooting. The code of not co-operating with police has evolved and spread from just being an unwritten rule among criminals, he said. "It's been promoted into an overt phenomenon where people in our community accept and adhere to this message for a number of reasons," said Sgt. Jansz. "It has become quite dramatic." Sgt. Jansz was qualified Wednesday to provide the court expert evidence on both the code of silence and urban street language at the first-degree murder trial of Lamar Skeete, 21. Skeete, also known by the nickname Ammo, stands accused of the execution-style shooting of Kenneth Mark. The 30-year-old victim had worked to curb guns and gangs in his west-end Toronto neighbourhood. It was a stance that allegedly led to him being shot in the back; he survived and fingered Skeete and his brother, accusations that fell apart in court. On Dec. 29, 2009, shortly after the Skeete brothers were released despite the victim's testimony, Mark was shot once in the head and died. The Crown alleges it was a retaliatory act by Skeete. Sgt. Jansz's evidence was of a general nature, not acts specific to the shooting of Mark. He said some neighbourhoods in the city were particularly "terrorized" by the code of silence but it is experienced city-wide. Otherwise good citizens are reluctant to be witnesses or come forward with information to help police investigate crime out of fear, said Sgt. Jansz. Prosecutor Karen Simone asked him what the concern was by the residents. "Their own personal safety or the safety of members of their family," he replied. Criminals accomplish this "either by instilling fear or taking physical measures to shut that person up. "If I leave a bullet on your doorstep, that sends a message," he said. "There are also more explicit ways — shootings, drive-by shootings into somebody's window, is an example." The jury trial before Ontario Superior Court Judge Ian Nordheimer continues Thursday.