2 Men Sentenced in Fatal Stabbing of Rapper

Two men were sentenced to at least 28 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of 20-year-old British rapper Crosslon Davis, who performed under the name Bis. Davis was killed in Deptford, London in the early morning hours of Dec. 6, 2019, and the attack was caught on surveillance cameras. Elijah Morgan, 20, and Jedaiah Param, 21, were found guilty of murder in March and were sentenced last week.

Morgan and Param, who were previously convicted on other knife-related charges, were sentenced to a minimum of 28 years in prison each during a hearing on April 19. Judge Angela Rafferty QC called the murder a “heartless and merciless crime,” and described the killing as “savage.” It was clear Davis “had been shown no mercy whatsoever and he died in the street despite extensive efforts of emergency services to save his life,” the judge said, reports the BBC. Param and Morgan’s criminal past was “appalling,” which the judge said was a “very significant” factor in the sentencing.

Davis’ mother, Vivienne Davis, said her son had a bright future that was “cruelly cut short.” She called his killers “cowards” for pleading not guilty at the start of the trial and forcing Davis’ family “to through this horrifically detailed trial on how they brutally and callously murdered my baby, refusing to acknowledge guilt or responsibility for their heinous crime, speaks for itself,” she said. “They made me watch my son being killed around 15 times on the CCTV footage.”

Davis, a member of the Harlem Spartan collective in Kennington, London, filmed a music video the day before his death. During his trip back to London, he became “angry” with someone on the phone. Davis thought the caller was “disrespectful” about rapper Latwaan Griffiths, a Harlem Spartan member who was stabbed to death in July 2018, the court heard. Davis and his friends met the caller in the Deptford Creek area just after 1 a.m. on Dec. 6, 2019.

Morgan and Param were getting into a taxi cab when Davis arrived at the scene with a mallet. Davis tried to attack Morgan, who was already inside the car. When all occupants of the car got out, the defendants and two other unidentified people attacked Davis, who dropped the mallet. CCTV caught the attack and showed one of Davis’ friends, Elhaj Diarrassouba, tried to stop it. “Those four armed men had murder in their mind and were intent on killing Crosslon Davis,” prosecutor Brian O’Neill QC said during the trial, reports the BBC.

The judge agreed with O’Neill during the sentencing hearing. “This was a sustained and vicious attack,” Rafferty said last week, reports Voice-Online. “Mr. Davis was killed despite the efforts of his friend to shield him. He was surrounded and repeatedly stabbed before collapsing. This was a savage murder of a defenceless man using large knives you took to the scene.”