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| Jailed: Jaydee Dorsett was handed a life sentence of 12 years for stabbing Isaiah Ekpaloba to death |
A robbery victim who knifed an aspiring rapper to death after turning the tables on his attacker was jailed for at least 12 years today.
Jaydee Dorsett, 20, murdered Isaiah Ekpaloba, 18, in a 'violent and sustained knife fight,' after the teenager, known as 'Profit' arrived to raid his flat.
Ekpaloba, along with 18-year-old Lamont Roper, frantically searched Dorsett's home in Wood Green, north London, before he fought back.
It is believed they were hoping to steal drugs and cash, but Ekpaloba was fatally wounded when the robbery erupted into 'extreme violence,' the Old Bailey heard.
Shocking CCTV footage showed Dorsett, armed with a knife, then chasing the pair up the street before trying to stab Roper as he and Ekpaloba tried to make their escape in a taxi.
Mr Justice Spencer revealed today that Roper and Ekpaloba appeared at Blackfriars Crown Court in August last year for robberies on two boys, aged 15 and 16, but chose to fight the charges.
'If Mr Ekpaloba and Mr Roper had admitted at the start their guilt, when they first arrived at the crown court, the likelihood is they would have been sent to custody', he said.
'Neither Mr Ekpaloba nor Mr Roper would have been around in January when this incident happened at all.'
Grace Ekpaloba, the victim's mother, broke down in tears as Dorsett was found guilty of her son's murder.
He was also found guilty of attempting to inflict serious bodily harm on Roper.
Mr Justice Spencer handed him a life sentence and said Dorsett must serve at least 12 years behind bars.
Roper, who stood trial alongside his attacker, was handed an 11-year jail sentence, made up of seven-and-a-half years, after he was convicted of conspiracy to rob, and three-and-a-half years, after he admitted two robbery offences committed with Ekpaloba.
He will serve half and also received a three-month concurrent sentence after he was found guilty of not cooperating with police by refusing to hand over the PIN number to his iPhone.
The judge told them: 'This case illustrates once again the dangers presented by knife crime, particularly in its association with the possession and supply of drugs.
As a result, a young man Isaiah Ekpaloba, aged 18, has lost his life leaving a grieving family.
'No sentence I can pass can make that loss any easier to bear.'
He added: 'The lives of two other young men standing in the dock have also been ruined as they embark on lengthy custodial sentences.'
The court heard Ekpaloba and Roper arrived at Dorsett's flat, on Maryland Road, by taxi on the afternoon of 9 January.
'What they were looking for the prosecution can't say, but certainly they were looking for something they believed Mr Dorsett had and they wanted,' said prosecutor Sandip Patel, QC.
One witness said he heard a 'rumbling like an earthquake' and lots of noise 'like lions wrestling'.
Ekpaloba was armed with a combat knife and fought with Dorsett, who eventually managed to turn the tables on his attacker.
Ekpaloba was knifed several times and died from a stab wound inflicted when Dorsett plunged a kitchen knife into his chest.
'These wounds were inflicted not in self defence, but with you as an aggressor,' the judge told Dorsett.
'You were fired up with rage and revenge was uppermost in your mind.'
Dorsett also sustained a number of stab wounds and a number of knives were recovered by police.
But the prosecutor said: 'It is Mr Dorsett who is the aggressor. He, armed with a knife or knives, attacking not for his protection, but revenge.'
Dorsett, of no fixed address, denied murder and attempting to wound with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
Roper, of Wigan House, Warwick Grove, Hackney, east London, denied conspiracy to rob and failing to comply with a section 49 order.
He admitted two counts of robbery on the boys aged 15 and 16 - carried out in April last year - at the start of the trial.
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