A 16-year-old boy stabbed to death and young people celebrating his death an hour later. In a video posted on Instagram, the young man accused of the murder of Jannai Dopwell in October 2021 mocked the victim before fleeing to Ottawa.
This is the disturbing story given by prosecutor M.e Simon Robin at the opening of the trial of a young adult accused of the unpremeditated murder of Jannai Dopwell held in the Youth Chamber in Montreal.
On October 18, 2021, Jannai Dopwell, 16, goes to Coronation School like every day. He was stabbed to death in the parking lot of the Côte-des-Neiges school after classes. “He never returned to his parents,” says the prosecutor.
The defendant in this case, now an adult, was 16 at the time. He attended the same school as the victim. He was loitering around the school on the day of the murder despite being expelled from school a few weeks earlier, according to the Crown’s theory.
An individual allegedly sprayed the victim with cayenne pepper. Young Dopwell then took off running. The accused then pushed Jannai Dopwell onto a brick wall and then killed him with a stab to the chest, the Crown said.
He fled to Ottawa only to be arrested three days later, according to the account presented to the jury Thursday.
During his run, he refined his plan: in a text conversation, the accused explained to a friend what he planned to tell the authorities, the Crown revealed.
Shocking videos
Videos appear on social media less than an hour after Jannai Dopwell’s murder. These filmed sequences show the accused mocking the victim and celebrating his death, knife in hand, explains Me Robin to the jury.
The motive for the murder remains a mystery, the public prosecutor said.
The prosecution intends to demonstrate that the young suspect intentionally stabbed the 16-year-old boy.
“Jannai is not just a victim. He was a son, a brother and a friend to many people,” recalled the prosecutor in his opening statement.
The jury trial continues Friday afternoon and is expected to last six weeks.