Teenager killed schoolboy after he was cleared of murdering athlete

A double killer who took part in the zombie knife stabbing of a schoolboy ten months after he was cleared of murdering a talented athlete is facing jail.

Romario Gordon was 17 when he stabbed former sprinter Damani Mauge once in the neck and heart during a fight on a bus near Crystal Palace’s football stadium in March 2020.

Gordon claimed he accidentally knifed Damani, 17, and a jury cleared him of murder and manslaughter in September 2020.

But Gordon was also part of a gang who attacked Camron Smith, 16, with zombie knives in front of his mother in his own home in Croydon, south London on 1 July 2021.

Wearing just his pants, Camron had tried to shield himself and his mother after the group broke down his front door but he was stabbed eight times.

Gordon, who was then 17 but now 22, fled to Gambia two days after the killing.

He was returned to the UK and was cleared of murdering Camron last October by an Old Bailey jury.

That jury had failed to reach a verdict on a charge of manslaughter but Gordon was finally convicted of the charge after a retrial today (thurs).

Gordon showed no emotion as the verdict was announced but a woman in the public gallery began to sob.

Following Gordon’s acquittal for murdering Damani five years ago Judge Wendy Joseph was horrified to learn he had previous convictions for mugging two schoolboys on a train that no-one even knew about during his trial.

The offences had not been logged onto the Police National Computer (PNC) by the British Transport Police (BTP).

The judge sentenced ‘remorseless’ Gordon to 18 months supervision for simple possession of the hunting knife he used on Damani and said: ‘In March 2020 you killed 17-year-old Damani Mauge with a combat knife. The jury acquitted you of murder and manslaughter.

‘These events are the clearest demonstration of why the law against carrying knives is so vitally important.

‘You deliberately armed yourself with not just a blade but a huge, dangerous hunting knife.

‘You produced it at the bus and in the bus stop where there were members of the public including one with a small child.’

She had banned Gordon from entering Croydon, Merton and Sutton for three months.

Gordon was living in Milton Keynes at the time of Camron’s murder but travelled to Croydon and met up with the rest of the gang.

Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson said: ‘They set out, in a car that they had hijacked and on mopeds, and armed with knives, looking for persons who they associated with the stabbing of an associate of theirs earlier on that Wednesday.

‘Acting as a group, and effectively hunting as a pack, they entered in rapid succession three homes in the Croydon area.

‘The first in Selhurst Place was no longer the address of anyone that they were looking for, but was in fact occupied by Susan Weatherspoon who awoke to find a masked male in her bedroom doorway, and to hear the voices of those who were with him.

‘The second address, in Armistice Gardens, they were unable to reach the person they were looking for, because he was able to keep a group of masked and knife carrying males out of his address.

‘Whatever had been their intention at those two addresses, and whether that had included an intention to use as well as to threaten significant violence, it is clear that this was their intention at the third address they entered in Bracken Avenue.

‘The occupant of that address was not as fortunate as those visited earlier.

‘The address at Bracken Avenue was that of a 16-year-old Camron Smith.

‘His home was entered by a masked, gloved and knife carrying group, and there they brutally killed that young man.

‘Unarmed and in his underwear, Camron Smith was stabbed in front of his mother.

‘The catalyst for this frenzy of aggressive behaviour appears to have been the stabbing of an associate of the defendant’s group, Jerome Taylor.

‘At the time that he was stabbed, Jerome Taylor had been with and was in contact with Romain LaPierre.

‘In the aftermath of the stabbing of Jerome Taylor, there was contact by Romain LaPierre who appears very much to have been in charge of the operation with a number of others who were soon to become involved.’

LaPierre, at the time 18, now 22, was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years in jail after he was convicted of the murder of Camron.

Jordan Tchueko, at the time 18, now 21, was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for manslaughter.

James Olanipekun, at the time 15, now 18, was sentenced to eight years in jail for manslaughter.

Le Quan Philip, who was also 15 at the time off the offence and now 18 and Sako Amoniba-Burnley, now 23, were both convicted of the robbery of Mr Akhmat’s Toyota Prius.

Gordon, of Monkston, Milton Keynes, denied but was convicted of manslaughter.

Judge Anuja Dhir remanded him in custody until sentence on a date to be fixed.

Damani was part of a gold-medal winning 4x100m team which competed at the London Youth Games, and won bronze at the 2016 Surrey Schools Championships in the 200m.

He had also competed at the Olympic Stadium as part of the club’s under-15 boys’ 4x100m team.

Camron’s mother Audrey Johnson earlier said in a statement read to the court: ‘Camron was my first and only child, and the emptiness inside of me and his death will haunt me every day for the rest of my life.

‘Words cannot describe the rush of love you feel when you get to hold your child for the first time.

‘I was there for his first breath and there for his last. This was not how I imagined motherhood to be.’
ENDS