A 17-year-old boy who stabbed an aspiring electrical engineer to death in a “knife fight between drug dealers” has been sentenced to four years in youth detention for his manslaughter.
Nic Lobbenberg KC, prosecuting, said the defendant, who cannot be named, and 17-year-old Jesse Nwokejiobi who died were concerned with rival drug dealing mobile phone lines when violence flared in Cambridge.
“The Crown say this incident became a knife fight between drug dealers, essentially over who had the right to deal in Logan’s Meadow,” Mr Lobbenberg told Huntingdon Crown Court on Friday.
He said that Mr Nwokejiobi arrived at the small nature reserve next to the River Cam and drew a knife on November 19, 2022.
The youth defendant also drew a knife, with Mr Nwokejiobi killed by a single stab wound to the heart at 3.25pm, despite efforts by emergency services to save him.
The prosecutor said: “The entire incident, from the arrival of Jesse on his scooter to when he goes to the ground fatally wounded, takes 46 seconds.”
He said that the youth defendant, together with a second boy, fled the scene and were driven away by “drug user” James Heath, 45, who allowed them to stay at his home overnight.
The two boys, who were both 16 at the time and are now 17, got a train to London, where they lived, the following day, Mr Lobbenberg said.
He said Heath had been allowing them to stay at his home and ferrying them to and from their drug dealing pitch.
The boy who stabbed Mr Nwokejiobi admitted to his manslaughter, which prosecutors said was an acceptable plea.
Tana Adkin KC, representing him, said he had a reading age of 12 and had been “vulnerable” to being recruited into criminality.
The judge, the honourable Mr Justice Butcher KC, said: “This is yet another case in which a young man has been pointlessly killed and other young lives blighted as a result of drug dealing.
Sentencing the youth who admitted to manslaughter to four years’ detention, the judge said the boy’s actions were “in response to Jesse’s arrival and threats”, noting that Mr Nwokejiobi first swung his knife, cutting the defendant’s coat and thumb.
The second boy, who was present when Mr Nwokejiobi was stabbed, admitted to two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs and affray.
He was sentenced to an 18-month youth rehabilitation order including 120 hours of unpaid work.
Liam Walker KC, mitigating for him, said the defendant had been a victim of modern slavery and exploited into forced drug dealing.
He said the defendant was not armed, and that 6ft 6ins Mr Nwokejiobi was wearing a balaclava when he arrived and drew a knife.
In a statement read to the court by a barrister, Mr Nwokejiobi’s mother Rita Ofor said she forgave the two boys, as family members wept in the packed courtroom.
“I’ve forgiven the two of them and I would really like to be able to speak to them and tell them that the path they are going down is of destruction,” she said.
Mr Nwokejiobi’s father Henry Nwokejiobi previously said that his son had moved from London to live with his mother in Cambridge in February 2022.
Speaking in December 2022, he said he told his son to go and live with his mother in Cambridge as “things were happening” in Mill Hill in north-west London, where he lived.
“Honestly I thought he would be safer in Cambridge,” he said, adding that his son had loved playing rugby, singing and rapping.
Heath, of Queens Close in Harston, Cambridgeshire, admitted two counts of assisting an offender and two counts of being concerned in the supply of class A drugs.
He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Mark Shelley, mitigating, said Heath was registered disabled since sustaining a back injury and got discounted drugs by allowing the youths to stay at his home.
