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

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

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.