Teen convicted in Jannai Dopwell-Bailey killing sentenced to 6 years

Charla Dopwell speaks to reporters after a teen convicted of killing her 16-year-old son, Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, was sentenced to six years. (Matt Gilmour/CTV News)

A 19-year-old man convicted of killing a Montreal teenager outside his school in October 2021 was sentenced to six years on Monday.

The offender, who was found guilty of second-degree murder, can't be identified because he was a minor at the time of the killing.

Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, 16, was pepper-sprayed, then beaten and stabbed 11 times by a group of teens outside Programme Mile End in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood.

"The punishment does not fit the crime," said Dopwell-Bailey's mother, Charla Dopwell, outside the courtroom after her son's killer was sentenced. "If it was the other way around like two Black boys that did this to a white person I don’t think that would have been the outcome."

Second-degree murder in Canada carries an automatic life sentence, with no chance of parole for 10 years. For youth, the maximum sentence for second-degree murder is seven years, with a maximum of four years spent in custody and the remainder spent under supervision in the community.

On Monday, a judge sentenced the young man to six years minus a credit of 12 months for time already served in jail, reducing the time left to serve to five years.

The judge told the court that he will serve two years in custody, which will be split in a youth facility until his 20th birthday and followed by time served in an adult correctional facility.

The remaining three years will be served in the community under supervision with conditions that will be determined at a later date.

According to the sentence, he is prohibited from contacting the victim's immediate family. He must also provide a sample of his DNA and is banned from owning a weapon for the rest of his life.

"We asked for the maximum sentence because of the principle of accountability. We were of the opinion that considering the violent acts that were committed by the accused and the indescribable consequences that were inflicted on the victims, only the maximum sentence was sufficient to make the adolescent accountable for his actions," Crown prosecutor Simon Robin told reporters at the courthouse.

The young man is the second person to be sentenced in the teen's killing.

Last June, a judge ruled 21-year-old Andrei Donet, who was also convicted of second-degree murder, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 13 years. Unlike the teen in court on Monday, Donet was an adult at the time of the killing.