An 18-year-old man has been sentenced for a minimum of 22 years for the murder Rhys Jones in Liverpool.
The 11-year-old was shot dead as he made his way home from football training in August 2007.
Gang member Sean Mercer was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court of firing three bullets across a pub car park in Croxteth after targeting rivals who had strayed on to his turf.
Rhys Jones was caught in the line of fire and shot in the neck.
After almost four days of deliberations, the jury of seven women and five men convicted Mercer of murder unanimously.
The verdict was reached yesterday but could not be reported until now.
Fellow gang members James Yates, 20, Nathan Quinn, 18, Gary Kays, 26, Melvin Coy, 25, and Boy M, 16, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were convicted unanimously yesterday of assisting an offender after they helped Mercer evade police for months.
Boy K, 17, who also cannot be named, was also convicted of four related charges.
During the trial, the jury heard that Mercer, of Good Shepherd Close, Croxteth, was a leading member of the Croxteth Crew gang, which was involved in a long-running feud with the Strand Gang, based on the neighbouring Norris Green estate.
Mercer had an 'intense hatred' of Strand Gang member Wayne Brady and had heard he was on Croxteth Crew territory.
Dressed in a black hoodie and tracksuit and armed with a Smith & Wesson .455 revolver, he cycled to the pub and fired three shots.
Rhys Jones, distracted by the sound of the first bullet striking a shipping container in the car park, turned toward the gunman and was struck in the neck by the second bullet.
The third bullet struck a disused well.
After the shooting, Mercer cycled to the home of Boy M, where he called on his fellow gang members to help him avoid the law.
With Yates, Quinn and Kays, he was driven by Coy to a lock-up garage on an industrial estate where his clothes were burned and his body washed down with petrol.
Mercer gave the murder weapon to 17-year-old Boy X, who hid it in a dog kennel.
It was later moved by Boy K to the loft of his house, along with a second gun and ammunition, where police found it later.
A crucial breakthrough in the police investigation came three months later when Boy X, who cannot be named, accepted immunity from prosecution in exchange for giving evidence against the gang.
