A man brutally stabbed a 25-year-old man to death and held his mother captive with cable ties after falling out over a sham marriage scam.
Riches Obi was repeatedly stabbed in the chest at his home near Elephant and Castle, south-east London, in November 2020. His mother, Bernadette Ortet, was found bound with cable ties in a bedroom at the property.
Ms Ortet was alleged to have been involved in a sham marriages scam and at the time was a case worker for a firm of solicitors specialising in immigration and nationality.
After a two-month trial at the Old Bailey, Jurick Croes, 38, of no fixed address, was found guilty of murder and false imprisonment.
Raichell Felomina, 40, of no fixed address, and Suvenca Martis, 34, of Forest Hill, south-east London, were convicted of false imprisonment but cleared over the killing.
Martis was also found guilty of perverting the course of justice, after a jury deliberated for 37 hours.
The court heard how police had been called to a stabbing at a property in Harper Road near Elephant and Castle on November 17 2020.
They arrived to find the front door partly open and Mr Obi collapsed with stab and slash wounds to his chest in the blood-stained hall.
An officer called out to see whether there was anyone else in the flat and a woman’s voice replied saying “I’m here”, the jury was told.
Following the sound of her calls, the officers found Mr Obi’s mother, Ms Ortet, in a bedroom.
Her wrists and ankles had been bound with cable ties and a scarf around her neck appeared to have fallen from her mouth, having been used to gag her.
The room was heavily stained with blood, on the bed, door and furniture, up the walls and on the ceiling, the court was told.
Despite efforts to save Mr Obi, he was pronounced dead at the scene.
An examination of the flat revealed that Mr Obi’s bedroom appeared to have been searched and a roll of duct tape was under a chair.
One of the defendants, Martis, was captured on CCTV at a hardware store in Camberwell, south London, buying cable ties and black tape.
Prosecutor Jennifer Knight KC had told jurors: “The background to these offences seems to lie in a sham marriage scheme in which all three of these defendants and Bernadette Ortet were engaged.
“It seems likely that these defendants had become angry about the remuneration they were receiving for their part in the scheme and went to Bernadette Ortet’s flat on November 17 determined to demand and obtain money from her.”
After the guilty verdicts on Tuesday, the defendants were remanded into custody to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on July 2.
