Students shot dead in US found ‘partially clothed’

TWO British students shot dead when they wandered into a rough Florida housing scheme were found partially clothed, a court was told yesterday.

James Cooper, 25, from Warwickshire, and James Kouzaris, 24, from Northampton, had no shirts and their trousers had been pulled down round their thighs.

Shawn Tyson, 17, is charged with murdering the men, who are believed to have lost their way while drunk and blundered into the ghetto of Newtown, Sarasota, last April.

Opening the prosecution case yesterday, assistant state attorney Ed Brodsky pointed at Tyson in the dock and told the jury: “The evidence will conclusively demonstrate to you that this man right here is responsible for the deaths of James Cooper and James Kouzaris.

The court heard Mr Kouzaris and Mr Cooper were in the second week of a three-week holiday.

They had been out for a meal with Mr Cooper’s parents, then went to a nightclub. They left the Gator Club in downtown Sarasota at about 2am. Less than an hour later, there were reports of gunshots in the area where the men were found dead by police.