Four men have been jailed for life for murder over a gang shooting outside a child’s first birthday party.
Kammar Henry-Richards, 26, Ka’mani Brightly-Donaldson, 25, Jeffrey Gyimah, 23, and Joao Pateco-Te, 28, were behind the gun attack on Kacey Boothe outside the Peterhouse Community Centre in Walthamstow.
It later emerged the same gun had been used two years earlier in an attack on Mr Boothe’s older brother Kyle, which he survived.
After the shooting, Henry-Richards, a drill rapper known as Kay-O, wrote lyrics boasting about both attacks.
“Big Boothe and Little got hit, same sig, that’s a sour family”, he said, in a rap video called ‘Kay-O Laughing Stock’.
“Both got slapped at functions, neck and head, handguns come handy.”
In another version, the lyrics read: “Big Boothe shoulda lurked, got his neck back ripped. Lil’ got burst, shoulda bin with his.”
On Tuesday, Judge Lynn Tayton KC sentenced Henry-Richards, Brightly-Donaldson, Jeffrey Gyimah, and Joao Pateco-Te to life in prison for murder.
Henry-Richards and Pateco-Te were both ordered to serve at least 37 years in prison, Brightly-Donaldson received a minimum term of 38 years, and Gyimah was ordered to serve least 35 years being considered for release from prison.
The judge said the shooting was a “revenge attack arising out of gang rivalry in the context of an ongoing pattern of tit-for-tat violence”, and condemned them for carrying out the attack at the location they chose.
“You knew children would be coming and going, attending a children’s birthday party”, she said.
The judge said Mr Boothe was involved in gangs, but “first and foremost he was a young man with his life ahead of him, who leaves behind a mother, partner, and children”.
She said carefully planning went into the attack, including obtaining a gun, organising a stolen car for the getaway, and attempts to dispose of the evidence.
“This was not a random attack by one person, but the result of a plan which required a number of people to carry it out in a co-ordinated way.”
She also noted that Henry-Richards had a “highly successful music career”, adding: “It is sad that a young man with such bright prospects should have been involved in such serious offending.”
Prosecutor Anthony Orchard KC told the court the shooting came in the midst of a violent feud between the London Fields gang and the E9/Holly Street gang.
Just before Mr Boothe was killed, members of the London Fields gang carried out a violent attack on Gyimah and Pateco-Te.
Mr Orchard said Henry’s Richard’s gloating rap video “goaded London Fields Gang, one of the E9/Holly Street Gang enemies, and glorified the murder of Kacey Boothe.”
“The track contained specific information about the circumstances in which Kacey Boothe had been killed that were not in the public domain.”
Mr Boothe’s killers had plotted to attack Khalid Samanter, the father of the child whose birthday party was being thrown on August 13 2022.
Eleven days prior to the fatal shooting, Mr Samanter’s entirely innocent neighbour was shot as he sat in his car, in a case of mistaken identity.
Mr Boothe, a close friend of Mr Samanter, was shot at point blank range seven times as he left the community centre at around 9.20pm, in what was described as a “well-planned and carefully orchestrated attack”.
The identity of the shooter is unknown.
Marcia Rowe, Mr Boothe’s mother, said in an impact statement read to the court on Monday there is “no limit to the endless suffering we all feel and must live with every day”.
She said: “This unexplained callous murder has taken away Kacey’s dreams and aspirations, at the age of just 25 when he had his whole life ahead of him.
“There are so many emotions I have in regards to the defendants, I feel anger, hurt and pain and the whole case saddened me.
“I feel relief that some justice will be served and my son’s killers have been caught.
“A part of me feels sorrow for the pain that they, their families and their children will now go through and I hope that each of them will show remorse and regret for what they have done.”
Shanice Thomas-Brown, Mr Boothe’s partner, said in an impact statement that their children have been “forced to develop an understanding of life, death, danger and violence”.
“Losing Kacey is the worst thing that’s ever happened to us and although he is not with us, his name will forever live on in our family,” she went on.
“Our kids enjoy visiting him at the cemetery, looking at videos and pictures and cuddling their teddy that has a recording of his voice inside.”
The gun used in Mr Boothe’s murder was used on seven occasions between 2020 and the day he was killed.
Pateco-Te had stolen a Jaguar before the shooting of Mr Samanter’s neighbour, who was accidentally targeted as he looked similar to the intended victim, the court heard.
The neighbour suffered a gunshot wound to his chest, causing a collapsed lung, and he was initially in a life-threatening condition in hospital.
Henry-Richards, Gyimah, and Pateco-Te stole a car which was used in the shooting of Mr Boothe.
The court heard that Gyimah was shot at and Pateco-Te was stabbed prior to the fatal shooting, in an attack carried out by members of the London Fields gang.
The shooting of Mr Boothe was carried out in revenge for that attack.
Henry-Richards, Brightly-Donaldson, of Romford, and Gyimah and Joao Pateco-Te, both of Hackney, were all convicted of murder in December last year following a trial.
They were also found guilty of conspiracy to murder Mr Samanter and conspiracy to possess a firearm or firearms with intent to endanger life.
Brightly-Donaldson was also convicted of having a prohibited firearm.
Roody Thomas, 27, of Birmingham, pleaded guilty to having a prohibited firearm. He as sentenced to five years in prison.
The killers laughed and swapped jokes in the dock as they arrived in the dock on Tuesday to face sentencing.
Mr Boothe’s family sat in the well of the court as the judge passed sentence.
