‘Hitman’ Ryan Hynes, admitted attempted murder 

Flash Day resented that John Sales inherited his mother’s house when she died, without a will

After discovering his stepfather’s will left 80 percent of the estate to him, Day hatched a plan to get hold of the money, by getting rid of the 70-year-old Sales

Flash hired Ryan Hynes, 21, for the hit, but Sales survived the attack which was carried out in his garden

Ryan has admitted executing the botched murder attempt

The  “10-inch long Rambo-style hunting knife” used in the attack and its sheath was found at the scene, along with a poem 

45-year-old Flash Day, his friend Scott Moffat, 49, and a teenage co-conspirator charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

Crime Scene: Front door of the home  where Pensioner John sales almost lost his life after his stepson put a hit on him

The Chelmsford Crown Court in Essex UK heard how a man put a ‘hit’ paid on his stepfather to death so he could inherit £200,000 tied up in the value of his house.
45-year-old Flash Day resented that his stepdad, John Sales inherited the house on his mother’s death. The 71-year-old Sales, as the next-of-kin, inherited the house when his wife died without leaving a will in 2009.
Day felt resentful that pensioner John Sales took ownership of his mother’s house went about plotting toretrieve the estate.
Ironically, Day hatched the plan after discovering his stepdad had made a will leaving most of his estate to him,  he decided to hasten the departure and get hold of the money. The will was to leave 80% of his estate to be divided between Flash Day and Day’s brother Paul. Paul himself died in 2014, leaving Day as the main beneficiary of the will.
Prosecutor Brian Reece, told the court that Day’s friend, Scott Moffat, 49, suggested an acquaintance who was obsessed with the military as the man to commit the murder.
The hitman, Ryan Hanes, attacked John Sales in his garden in Colchester, Essex, in the early evening of November 10 2015.  Sales, then aged 70, was stabbed in his back.  He suffered a deep wound to his back which caused kidney damage and a gash down the side of his jaw, which the prosecution say was intended to be a fatal blow to the throat. However, the victim managed to dial emergency responders and survived.
Placed in an induced coma, and it took six weeks before he was well enough to be interviewed, he told police he remembered a man outside his back door who said he was there as someone had kicked a ball into the garden.
He then believed he was being punched and kicked before he realized he was being stabbed.
Prosecutors said a “10-inch long Rambo-style hunting knife” was used in the attack and its sheath was found at the scene and Ryan Hynes, 21, admitted the attempted murder of Sales on the first day of the trial.
Bill Reece told the court: “This was not a random attack by a stranger”.
“This was a carefully planned attack.”
He noted that the victim’s wallet and the keys to his Jaguar were left at the scene, while a poem “laced with references to death” apparently bearing the signature of Day’s dead brother Paul, was placed at the house.
According to the prosecution the trigger for the murder-for-hire was the act of Sales putting his home on the market with a sale value of £240,000 in September 2015. Then pensioner was planning to downsize and move closer to Mersea Island where a “lady friend” who he met in 2012 lived.

 

Pensioner John Sales was intending to sell the property and move to Mersea Island 

Flash, originally called Ashley, but who legally changed his name, grew up in the home, living there with his mother Josephine and brother Paul.
Josephine married Mr Sales in 1995 and when she died without leaving a will in 2009. Mr Sales inherited the home and made a will leaving 40% to each of her sons and, after Paul died in 2014, Day was looking at inheriting four-fifths of the £240,000 property.
Apparently worried about losing his link to the inheritance if the house was sold, Day
implemented the plot when the ‘for sale’ sign outside the house changed to ‘sold’ in October 2015.
That is when Day’s friend, Moffat, recommended Hynes as the hired killer as he “had a sort of obsession with military matters”, had knives and was “always in debt to family and to Moffat himself”, Reece said. The prosecutor also said the police investigation had taken a “wrong turning” in the early stages and an innocent man was arrested and charged before being released with no further action against him.
Flash Day, Scott Moffat and a teenage girl who cannot be named for legal reasons all deny conspiracy to commit murder. The teenager has admitted perverting the course of justice after providing Hynes with a false alibi.
The trial,  continues.