Musician who murdered rapper’s brother gets 28 years

A musician who stabbed the brother of a popular rapper to death after he tried to photobomb his ‘snakes in the forest’ video shoot was jailed for at least 28 years.

Stephen Morrisson, 30, was shirtless, shouting and banging his head against a tree while cameras rolled on performers with live reptiles in Epping Forest in Essex.

Drill rapper Ellis Heather, 26, stabbed him in the chest after Mr Morrisson drove his car towards his group, the Old Bailey heard.

Mr Morrisson, a content creator and the brother of rapper Morrisson, managed to drive away from the scene but later died from his injuries in hospital.

His brother Joey Morrisson was involved in a brief with relationship with Towie star Lauren Goodger in 2017.

Heather, known as ‘Rackz’ was convicted of murder after an Old Bailey trial last month and yelled ‘That’s f***ing wrong!’ as he left the dock.

Yonas Girma, 29, a rapper turned Instagram wildlife influencer known as ‘Ty From The Wyld’, was accused of punching Mr Morrisson before he was stabbed to death but was cleared of murder.

Girma, also known as ‘Yosh’ or ‘Ty’, had told jurors: ‘I didn’t touch the guy at all.’

Heather was only 14 when he was convicted of causing grievous bodily harm after he and a gang of friends kicked and stabbed a teenager repeatedly in the head, the court was told.

He had been convicted of GBH one year before for stamping on another teenager outside a pizza shop.

In 2022 he was caught with a loaded firearm.

Prosecutor Maryam Syed, KC, said Heather was a member of the street gang CGM, based in Ladbroke Grove.

Judge Nigel Lickley, KC, jailed Heather for life with a minimum term of 28 years.

He said: ‘You Ellis Heather are responsible for the ongoing suffering of so many people.

‘It is the prosecution case you were a member of a criminal gang. As part of that association you were a performer in drill rap videos.

‘What is clear is that without any justification whatsoever you stabbed Stephen.

‘Despite assistance from members of the public he succumbed to his injuries. The wound you caused was deep.

‘I accept this was a spontaneous act with no planning. That said you were armed with the knife and prepared to use it.

‘You stabbed Stephen in a moment of extreme violence violence. He was alone and posed no threat to you.

‘You fled the scene knowing what you had done.

‘You had no concern for your victim. You bragged about what you had done shortly after and the next day.

‘You added more distress to his family by boasting about killing him in a drill rap video.’

Heather, wearing a blue t-shirt with tattooed writing on his arm, did not react as he was jailed.

Reading her victim impact statement to court, Mr Morrisson’s mother Lorraine Morrisson said: ‘When you senselessly murdered our son you took our lives too. I will always live life grieving the loss of our son.

‘For the past six years I’ve not had a full night’s sleep as I’ve replayed the violent moments of our son’s death.

‘As painful as losing him was, not being able to see or hold him before he died made it even worse.

‘Because of Covid and our son’s body being a crime scene we were not allowed to see him for two weeks afterwards.

‘Having to go into room to identify your son’s body is the most horrifying thing a parent has to go through.

‘Over the last four weeks you have made us relive everything all over again. We have had to look at distressing photos and hear about Steve trying to get help whilst knowing he was dying.

‘Hearing how he collapsed on the floor of the petrol garage before he died was torture.

‘You put us through that agony, reliving harrowing details of our son’s final moments, then had the audacity to tell the jury you were a mother’s boy.

‘After taking my son’s life made hearing those words unbearable.

‘You showed him no mercy, you did what you did because you wanted to and you knew who he was.’

She said Mr Morrisson’s father died just before the trial and did not get to see justice for his son.

Monique Gilligan had a six week fling with Heather and told the court how she saw him swinging his hand towards Mr Morrisson’s neck at the shoot near the at the Wake Arms car park on 23 June 2020.

Afterwards he told her ‘this is my first M’ and drove her into the countryside the next day to get rid of the murder weapon.

Ms Gilligan initially declined to give evidence but in 2024 she agreed to take the witness stand if no action was taken against her.

The court heard Mr Morrisson had arrived at the video shoot in a stolen black Vauxhall Corsa and asked the musicians if they knew who he was as he tried to get involved in the video.

He had previously created content on YouTube where he would play ‘chicken’ with cars, driving at people but stopping before he hit them.

Ian Henderson, KC, representing Heather argued that the murder was not premeditated and Heather had no intention to kill.

Ms Gilligan told the court: ‘Morrisson, he kept like coming up to speak to the boys, it was a bit weird, it was weird interactions.

‘He was very chatty, very talky, very loud. At some points I remember him banging his head on the tree.

‘The boys were kind of not paying any attention to it. Melissa had a snake on her and her and Crystal were taking photos with the snake.’

‘Morrisson got into his car, I thought he was gonna leave but instead he drove around the tree, skidding round this tree and then he basically went to run them over.

‘Once he got out of the car Yosh went and punched him in the face and then I saw – to my recollection it could have been a punch, a slap, a bottle.

‘Rackz, I could see him like swing his arm toward what I thought was his neck area.

‘‘I got back in car and then very quickly all the boys started running to their cars.’

She said one of the men got into her car saying ‘drive, drive drive’ and they took off with a snake still in the car.

Mr Morrisson drove to a nearby Shell petrol station where he refused help from members of the public before he collapsed.

Ms Gilligan said she agreed to go to Heather’s house with everyone else to ‘continue the party’.

‘They started playing a song and I remember asking them because they were laughing and stuff I was like “who’s this?” and they said just this rapper Morrisson.

‘I can’t remember exactly what was said but it was them laughing at the situation that happened and saying “this is the brother”.

She said she had sex with Heather and then they went to bed.

She said around 10 or 11am she was in the living room when Girma came in a said: ‘He’s died, he’s died, he’s died’.

‘Yosh was like we need to get out, we need our passports we need to go fly out- but Rackz was very calm, he was like I need breakfast, I wanna chill, no one’s gonna come here.’

She said he drove into the countryside where Heather got out and walked into a field.

‘He was gone for five or 10 minutes and when he came back I seen a cloth, it had red stains on it, but not fresh, like it had been there a little bit.

‘Then in my head I’m thinking “oh okay that probably is blood”.

She said they headed back into London and Heather kept spitting out of the window and said he felt sick.

‘He asked me to hold the wheel, bear in mind he’s doing 60 or 70, and then he threw up outside the window.

‘I asked why is he being sick and he was like “this is my first M” which in the world of slang I would interpret as this is my first murder. ‘And then I kind of realised who I’m in the car with.

‘I kept composed, calm and he said “you’re very chill, most girls probably wouldn’t be like this.”

Ms Gilligan messaged a friend saying ‘I had sex with Rackz’ and ‘he’s just too sexy I can’t help it’.

Girma told the court he had seen Heather attacking Mr Morrisson but took no part in the violence himself.

He told the jury: ’We had recorded a song in the weeks prior so wanted to do a music video for it.’

He said there had not been any tension or argument he was aware of but he knew that Mr Morrisson had been told he could not be in the music video.

‘He’s jumped out of his car and there was a lot of people in front.

‘Ellis threw his hand up, what I thought was a punch at the time.

‘They were trying to grab him, push him out the way, cause he just tried to run everyone over.’

He said he did not join the scuffle and was never within touching distance of Mr Morrisson.

‘Everyone already knew that Ellis had stabbed him. He didn’t just say it to me,’ said Girma.

Mr Morrisson had been jailed for two-years and ten-months after he took part in a raid in a cannabis factory in 2010 in which a Vietnamese man died.

Tran Duy Hai, 38, was a live in gardner at the farm in Redhills Road, South Woodham Ferrers, on December 9, 2010 when at least eight men broke in through the roof.

The father of two died after falling through a skylight but the reasons for his death are still a mystery.

Heather, of Taplow, Buckinghamshire and Girma, of Hanworth, west London, denied murder.

In a statement, Stephen’s family said: ‘Our family finally has some peace; Steve got the justice he deserved. This doesn’t take away the pain we feel of not having him with us.’

Detective Chief Inspector Greg Wood, senior investigating officer attached to Essex Police, said:

‘This verdict finally delivers justice for Stephen and his family, six years after his life was so tragically taken.

‘They have shown immense strength and patience as this case has progressed – often away from the public view – and our thoughts remain firmly with them today.

‘This investigation has presented significant challenges and required the dedication of many officers and staff to ensure the truth was uncovered and the individual responsible was brought before the courts.

‘This work began on the evening of June 23 2020, and so many officers and staff played a part in this, some of whom have since left the force and I would particularly like to pay tribute to their hard work and their tireless dedication to securing justice for Stephen’s loving family.

‘While no outcome can undo what has happened, we hope this verdict provides them with some sense of closure and they can move forward knowing the individual responsible for Stephen’s death have been held to account.’
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