Jury finds Andrei Donet guilty of second-degree murder in stabbing death of Montreal teen

A jury has found a 21-year-old man guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Montreal teenager Jannai Dopwell-Bailey outside his school in 2021.

Jurors delivered the verdict in the trial of Andrei Donet on Sunday at the Montreal courthouse, CTV News confirmed.

He was charged just over a month after the Oct. 18, 2021 killing of 16-year-old Dopwell-Bailey. Police said at the time that he was stabbed at around 3 p.m. outside Programme Mile End in the Côte-des-Neiges neighbourhood and then ran back inside the school to seek help.

He later died of his injuries.

A friend holds up a photo of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, 16, two days after he was stabbed outside his school. (Andrew Brennan/CTV News)

Donet will return to court on May 30 and 31 for a sentencing hearing to determine his parole eligibility. The minimum for second-degree murder is 10 years. The jury has already recommended the offender serve 12 years before being eligible for parole.

Victim's mom finds 'some comfort' in guilty verdict

The victim's mother, Charla Dopwell, said she hopes the court sets a "firm and tough" time limit on when he will get parole.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday, she told reporters that she took "some comfort in yesterday's verdict" after watching a second person being found guilty in her son's killing. A teenager who was arrested following the stabbing was also found guilty of second-degree murder last December.

Charla Dopwell sits on a bench dedicated to her 16-year-old son, Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, who was stabbed to death on Oct. 18, 2021. She said Monday she finds 'some comfort' that another person charged in her son's killing was found guilty of second-degree murder. (Olivia O'Malley/CTV News)

"No words can describe the unbearable pain of hearing details about his killing, about how his friends and his teachers desperately tried to protect him and then trying to save him as he lay on the floor," she said after Sunday's verdict.

"Or watching for the first time the video of his final minutes of his beautiful life. During my time in the courtroom, it felt like reliving the tragedy of losing him all over again. When he died, a part of me died with him."

Flowers left by Charla Dopwell in memory of her son, 16-year-old Jannai Dopwell-Bailey, on Monday, May 20, 2024. (Olivia O'Malley/CTV News)

The grieving mother, who laid flowers at the spot where he was stabbed, also wanted to clear the air after the trial, which heard that the accused made racial slurs against her son and made links to street gangs.

"He was in school, he wasn't in a gang," she said. "To call my son a member of a gang, or a gangster — to quote one of the accused messages — is to further perpetuate racism, labeling, and criminalizing of Black youths. We need to stop the labels."

With files from CTV News Montreal's Olivia O'Malley