A teenager who stabbed to death an innocent 15-year-old schoolboy in a “senseless” gang attack outside a chicken shop has been jailed for life.
Nyron Jean-Baptiste, 18, knifed Jai Hughes through the heart with a machete, shouting out “I got one” as he ran away after the attack.
The Old Bailey heard that while Jean-Baptiste was “embedded in knife gang culture”, there was no evidence to suggest Jai - a budding cartoonist and animator - was involved in gangs at all.
Prosecutor Crispin Aylett QC said Jai had fallen victim to a feud between rival southeast London factions M20 and B-Side, adding: “Those who are engaged in such feuds tend to stab first and find out the facts later."
Sentencing the teenage killer, who turned 18 last week and can be named today for the first time, Judge Anuja Dhir QC said the stabbing was “brazen, quick and ruthless”.
“You went straight up to Jai Hughes, a young man you did not know who had no gang affiliation and just happened to be standing in a street where a rival gang operated”, she said.
“In reality Jai Hughes didn’t stand a chance of surviving this senseless and brutal attack.”
She said Jean-Baptiste, a member of the M20 gang, had intended to kill Jai rather than just injure him and must serve a minimum of 19 years in custody.
Jai’s mother Cindy Hughes said she had been left “empty and sad inside” following the death of her eldest son, who would have turned 16 on Sunday.
“He was too young, it wasn’t his time to go”, she said. “I don’t believe I can ever fully accept it.”
She said Jai had wanted to work at his uncle’s construction firm and dreamed of becoming a successful cartoonist, adding: “The sense of loss is unbearable.”
Jai was standing with a friend outside the Morley’s chicken shop in Bellingham when he was murdered.
Jean-Baptiste was one of three hooded and masked men armed with large knives who arrived together in a car in the afternoon of November 1 last year, parking up near to the chicken shop.
The two other men chased after Jai’s friend, while Jean-Baptiste ran up to Jai who was stationary and stabbed him once in the chest.
The injured boy staggered into the chicken shop and was given emergency first aid, but he died in hospital less than three hours later.
Jean-Baptiste was captured in Gravesend, Kent, on December 10 when he had a large hunting knife stuffed into the waistband of his trousers. He was also caught with drill rap lyrics boasting about his gang life.
Graham Trembath QC, representing Jean-Baptiste, said the teen had been neglected as a child: “He was literally doomed in so many way from when he was born.”
Jean-Baptiste, from Penge, denied but was convicted at trial of murder. He admitted possession of a knife when he was arrested.
