Two teenage brothers who stabbed a man to death for his phone in a south London park have been jailed.
Victim Kalabe Legesse had been sitting on a bench in Peckham Rye Park when Nah’shun Thomas, 20, and Nyran Thomas, 17, attacked him for his phone on December 30, 2022.
During the robbery, the 29-year-old was fatally stabbed once in the chest, with the pair making their getaway on their bikes and leaving him collapsed and injured.
On Wednesday, the brothers, of Bournemouth Road, Peckham, were each sentenced to life with a minimum term of 25 years and three months, and 19 years and ten months respectively.
A judge also lifted reporting restrictions which barred the identification of Nyran due to his age.
The court heard how Kalebe had been speaking to a friend on the phone when he was attacked.
The friend testified he heard the killers say, “Where are you from?’ and ‘What have you got on you?”
Police discovered that the defendants had committed two other knifepoint mobile phone robberies shortly before Kalabe’s murder.
When they searched the home address of Nyran, they found a black hunting knife wrapped in a Puffa-style coat hidden in his grandmother’s bedroom, which contained traces of Kalabe’s blood.
In a statement released by police, Kalabe’s family paid tribute to him as being “loved by everyone”.
“He was doing nothing wrong on the night that he was killed and we will never understand why he was murdered over a mobile phone,” a family spokesperson said.
“The defendants have not shown any remorse for what they did to him. We have recently passed the anniversary of his death; Christmas and New Year for us will never be the same again.
“Kalabe was loved by everyone he met and had an exciting future ahead of him. He will never be able to have a family of his own, and our family will never have him back.”
Met Detective Inspector Adam Guttridge said: “The defendants were riding around the area, armed with a knife that they were prepared to use to commit violent offences.
“With crime comes accountability and consequences. For cruelly and needlessly ending Kalabe Legesse's life, they will have years ahead of them in prison to reflect on their actions and the lives they have destroyed.”
