Mother gets 23 years for murder of 17-year-old

A mother who drove her son and two teenagers to kill a disabled 17-year-old has been jailed for a minimum of 23 years.

Levi Ernest-Morrison, 17, was hacked to death with machetes in the street as a horrified 13-year-old girl watched and heard his blood curdling screams.

Nicola Leighton, 37, wanted revenge when a group of teenagers including victim Levi turned up at her home looking for her son, 19-year-old Tyreese Ulysses, the Old Bailey heard.

She called police and told officers that if the teenagers came back she was ‘going to batter them.’

Leighton then rounded up a group of youths including her son and roared off in red Suzuki jeep to attack Levi in Sydenham, southeast London.

Jurors were shown footage of the car racing to the scene and the killers jumping out, armed with knives and machetes.

Leighton is heard encouraging them, shouting: ‘F***ing run!’

The two teenagers are then seen on CCTV mercilessly hacking at Levi with machetes.

Leighton, together with Alexander Sprules, 17, and another youth, 16, denied but were convicted of murdering Levi by an Old Bailey jury last month.

Ulysses was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter by a majority of 10 to two after a jury deliberated for more than 40 hours.

The jury was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on a charge of murder relating to another youth, aged 15.

Ulysses, Sprules and the 16-year-old earlier admitted possessing an offensive weapon, namely machetes.

Judge Peter Rook QC said: ‘‘These are truly grave offences and sadly yet a further example of knife crime that is the scourge of some of our city.

‘This group attack was a brutal overreaction to a small problem, a petty rivalry between teenagers.

‘It is clear this murder was committed in the context of gang rivalry.

‘Those few seconds…led to Levi being deprived of his most precious possession, life itself.’

He told Leighton: ‘You Nicola Leighton are a mature woman and the mother.

‘Rather than seeking to protect your son…you exposed him to danger and encouraged him to participate in the attack knowing full well he was armed with a machete.

‘You, Nicola Leighton drove them in your car searching for your prey.

‘Your chasing party must have been a terrifying sight to anybody in the street going about their daily lives.’

Judge Rook ordered that Sprules should be identified because he had landed the ‘lethal blow.’

‘It should be noted that it was Alex Sprules in particular who in this case was responsible for the lethal blow and indeed the evidence in the case supported that he had a close relationship with the first defendant Nicola Leighton.

‘It seems to me that there is clearly a legitimate public interest in the reporting of this case and indeed the reporting of the name of the person responsible for the lethal blow.’

The court heard how the 13-year-old girl was standing on a street corner and witnessed the attack.

She saw them jump from Leighton’s car and then saw them drive off after the killing as the mother screamed: ‘Hurry and get in before the Feds come.’

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said: ‘She saw one of them stab Levi, then she heard the terrible screams.’

Mr Emlyn Jones told the court Levi and a friend were out in Sydenham just after 7:15pm on Saturday April 10 when Leighton’s red jeep drove up the road at speed.

‘The car was driving in the middle of the road and suddenly veered, driving straight at them.

‘Levi and his friend did not wait to find out what was going on.

‘They immediately sped off, and just as quickly, four young men jumped out of that red Suzuki and chased them down Hazel Grove to Sydenham Road.

‘All four of those young men were carrying knives.

‘When they got to the main road, Levi and his friend ran off in different directions and the four young men chasing them all split.

‘Two of them went after Levi’s friend and two of them after Levi himself.’

Levi’s friend also had a large knife and managed to chase them off two of the attackers.

‘But Levi was not so lucky,’ said the prosecutor.

‘As you will hear Levi also had a knife.

‘This is six young men in that street of London armed with knives.

‘But Levi did not have a chance to get his knife out.

‘One of the passengers from the red car chased him down the main road.

‘The passengers from the red car chased him down the main road, when they reached his side of the road Levi was caught, and stabbed, and killed.’

Jurors heard that all four ran back into the car, having been outside it for just 30 seconds.

‘The car was being driven by Nicola Leighton. It was her car.’

Earlier that evening, a group of teenagers including Levi and his friend showed up at Leighton’s house looking for her son.

‘The prosecution say that having heard the news that Levi and his friend had come to his mum’s house and were bothering her, Tyreese Ulysses rallied the troops, in other words rounded up his friends and the other three came to Nicola Leighton’s house,’ added Mr Emlyn-Jones.

Leighton had rushed to the scene with the teenagers in her Suzuki but giving evidence she insisted she had no idea of what was going on.

She said she did not know the boys were armed with knives or any other weapons.

During the trial the 16-year-old boy claimed he only took a ‘swipe’ at Levi to scare him but jurors heard he changed his clothes and threw a pair of bloodied shoes in the bin.

He then went to his girlfriend’s home where he put on a different coat and took a photo with her to manufacture an alibi.

Sprules denied involvement but claimed he got in contact with the 16-year-old after the killing and told him to hand himself in to police.

Mr Ernest-Morrison’s devastated mother previously told the court how her son was a ‘beautiful boy with a beautiful heart’.

She said he was ‘well-mannered and kind’ and interested in construction, with dreams of starting a family in their native St Lucia.

The teenager had autism and nerve damage which gave him drop foot, which meant he needed to walk with a crutch.

‘He was a beautiful person. He loved helping people,’ his mother said.

‘He wouldn’t hurt a fly.’

In a victim impact statement read out in court today, she added: ‘No mother should have to leave her son alone on the cold stone floor metres away from his warm, loving home.’

Leighton was jailed for life sentence with a minimum of 23 years for the murder and a two-year sentence running concurrently for the second count of possession of an offensive weapon.

Sprules has given detention for life with a minimum of 20 years for murder as well as a two-year concurrent sentence for possession of an offensive weapon.

The 16-year-old was sentenced to detention for life with a minimum of 16 years and 18 months for possession of an offensive weapon to run concurrently.

Ulysses was jailed for 13 years with and an extended license period of 5 years.

He, too, will serve 18 months concurrently for possession of an offensive weapon.

Leighton, of Lockwood Close, Sydenham, Ulysses, of Catford, Sprules, of Lewisham, and the two youths, aged 15 and 16, all denied murder.

Ulysses, Sprules, and the 16-year-old had admitted possessing machetes