The grieving father of murdered footballer Shaki Crockwell said he would sleep easier in his bed last night after his son’s killer was finally brought to justice.Derek Spalding was convicted by a unanimous verdict of shooting Mr Crockwell dead on August 24 2007. The conviction came thanks to fresh evidence from key witnesses who stepped forward in 2010 and 2011.Heralding the verdict against Spalding in an emotional speech outside court, the victim’s father, Danny Crockwell, 51, declared: “Justice has been served. He’s got what he had coming to him. He took my best friend, but guess what, the Almighty has done his work. Now Shaki Crockwell can rest in peace. My momma can rest in peace and I can get sleep now. I can have a comfortable sleep now; for four years I’ve had no rest.”Mr Crockwell Sr said although he was breaking down with emotion: “It feels good and my heart feels so good.”One of the victim’s five sisters, Chianne Crockwell, 24, said: “The whole family has been waiting for this for four years now and it finally came through.”She thanked everyone who came forward to help in the case, plus “all the detectives and the jury”.Spalding’s trial heard how he shot 25-year-old Mr Crockwell over an unpaid drug debt. He lured him to the Railway Trail in Devonshire and murdered him with a bullet to the head, since Mr Crockwell was wearing a bulletproof vest.The victim was a striker for the national football team, and also played for Boulevard Blazers and the Bermuda Hogges. He left two young sons, who were aged just eight years old and six months old at the time of his death.Convicted bank robber Randy Lightbourne, 45, was the first of two key witnesses for the prosecution. He explained that he knew Mr Crockwell and Spalding from prison. He alleged that Mr Crockwell sold drugs for the defendant but did not pay him, leaving Spalding feeling angry and cheated.According to Mr Lightbourne he tried to mediate between the two men, but Spalding, 36, eventually carried out his threats to kill Mr Crockwell.Mr Lightbourne said Spalding confessed the killing to him the morning after he did it. He reported the information to the police more than three years later, in September 2010, after he had been shot himself and thought he was going to die.“I just wanted it off my conscience,” he explained.Spalding’s father was the second key witness for the Crown. He told the jury his son confessed to the murder and asked him to provide an alibi. The father cannot be named due to a reporting restriction imposed by the judge at the request of the prosecution.The father reported Spalding to the police in August 2011 because he had argued with his son, and feared his son was going to kill him.“I just thought the police ought to know about him,” he told the jury.When he gave evidence in his own defence, Spalding denied killing Mr Crockwell. He admitted he was handed a 28-year jail sentence in 1997 for armed robbery and attempted armed robbery, and that he shot and injured a man during one of those robberies.He was released from prison on parole in March 2007, five months before he murdered Mr Crockwell. Spalding claimed he was at his Pembroke home on the night of the killing. He claimed his father hated him because he thought he was gay, and therefore lied to the police about him.Another prosecution witness was a man who was feeding feral cats near the scene of the murder, and heard the gunshot along with loud reggae music coming from the Railway Trail. He told police he thought it was a car stereo.Mr Crockwell Sr gave evidence that he once admired Spalding’s motorbike when Spalding visited his son, noting the bike was kitted out with a sound system to play reggae music.Spalding was arrested twice over the murder. The first time was in September 2007 when police searched his home and found violent reggae lyrics, which Spalding described as “personal”.The prosecution alleged that he wrote them about the murder, and asked the jury to draw parallels between songs with titles such as Brand New Glock and Bulletproof Vest and the circumstances of the Crockwell killing.Spalding claimed that a fellow prisoner, Kirk Mundy, wrote the lyrics when they were in jail together. Mundy testified as such when he was called as a defence witness on Tuesday.Spalding was released after his 2007 arrest as there was not enough evidence to charge him. He was rearrested in August 2011 after his father reported him to the police.His trial began on January 24 2012, and he denied charges of premeditated murder and using a firearm to commit an indictable offence. He was convicted of both charges by unanimous verdicts after the jury deliberated for four hours.He showed no emotion as the verdicts were delivered. Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves remanded him into custody, ordering him to return to court on March 1, when a sentencing date will be set.