Jannai Dopwell-Bailey ignored warning to stay away from people who killed him, jury told

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Jannai Dopwell-Bailey ignored a warning to stay away from the people who ended up killing him minutes after he left his school in Côte-des-Neiges, he told a jury on Thursday.

Jannai was 16 when he was killed on Oct. 18, 2021, outside Program Mile End High School on Van Horne Ave. Andrei Donet, 21, is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing and the theory of the case. the Crown is that there was an accomplice to the murder, a minor who had been expelled from the same school three weeks before Jannai was killed.

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The name of the accomplice cannot be published.

Donet is being tried alone before a jury at the Montreal courthouse. On Thursday, Katelyn O’Brien, a counselor for the Montreal English School Board’s outreach program designed to give troubled students a second chance, testified about how she and other school staff tried to prevent the tragedy.

She said she hoped something bad was about to happen when she learned the expelled student was waiting outside the school minutes before school ended that day. She told the jury the teen was expelled after a fight with another student.

Efforts were made to reconcile the two students involved in the fight, but the minor who ended up expelled showed no interest.

“The meeting was shocking, if I do say so myself. The (younger) did not repent. He told me and my colleague that he enjoyed giving lessons,” O’Brien said, adding that the teenager admitted to fighting before. He “said he was surprised he lasted this long into the school year without fighting.”

When the juvenile was seen outside the school, O’Brien said, she and other staff members immediately became concerned that he was there looking for more violence. She said she and her colleagues went outside to try to avoid any confrontation. She said the students were “led away” from where the minor, the man believed to be Donet and a third youth were waiting.

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O’Brien said he assumed the juvenile was waiting for the same student he had fought with three weeks earlier. He also said that he had never seen Jannai and the child interact at school before and that the children were in different grades.

The school counselor also said that most students followed her advice to head toward the Plamondon subway station, but Jannai and a group of about four other students “turned left instead of right.”

“She was yelling at them to keep going to the subway with the others,” O’Brien said, adding that Jannai and the other children ignored her and began making hand gestures toward the minor and his group. “I told them not to even think about going to where the other kids were.”

At the time, teachers who were out of school were using an app to share their concerns that something bad was about to happen.

“I could feel things were going to get worse,” O’Brien said as he described how he felt the moment before Jannai and his group walked toward the boy and his group who were standing near a sports center next to the school. .

“They were faster than me,” O’Brien said of his efforts to avoid a confrontation between the groups. When he approached them, he could “hear and smell the pepper spray.”

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The Crown’s theory of the case is that Donet pepper-sprayed Jannai and blocked his path as he tried to return to the entrance to his school. O’Brien said at the time he was six feet away and his eyes went to the container of red pepper spray and he didn’t realize who was holding it. The next thing he noticed, O’Brien said, was that Jannai and his group were leaving the sports center.

“I noticed (one of Jannai’s friends) was running and looked terrified,” O’Brien said. “Jannai was trying to run away and as he was running he stumbled a little bit.”

She also told jurors that she recognized the juvenile immediately as she chased Jannai, but that a second individual, allegedly Donet, was wearing a ski mask when they passed her and caught up with the homicide victim.

“(Jannai) was just a few steps away from (the staircase) to Mile End when the others caught up to him,” O’Brien said as he fought back tears. “Obviously, there was a lot of panic and screaming.”

He said the attackers blocked his view while they punched and kicked Jannai while he was on the ground. He said he yelled at the attackers to stop.

“That’s when I realized I had to call 911,” he said. “My eyes went to my phone to dial 911.”

O’Brien said he looked back at the attack but realized his phone wasn’t calling 911, so he tried again. As the call went out, he recalled, the people who attacked Jannai were fleeing.

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