Momodu Samura, 23, of Stanley Road, Haringey, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday, 13 May for the murder of 21-year-old Tyreke Watson.
He was found guilty of murder and possession of a bladed article following a trial at the same court on Thursday, 31 March. He was given a concurrent term of imprisonment of 12 months for the possession of a bladed article and 30 months for possession with intent to supply cocaine and heroin, which he had separately pleaded guilty to.
Detective Chief Inspector Linda Bradley, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command, said: “Tyreke was only 21 years old and had his whole life ahead of him when he was senselessly murdered by Samura, who at one point claims to have been his friend.
At the time of his death, Tyreke and his girlfriend were expecting a baby. The baby is now a year old and she will grow up never having known her father.
Our thoughts very much remain with Tyreke’s family and friends; they have been stoic and dignified throughout the legal proceedings and we hope the conclusion of the trial allows them to move forward.
“Samura equally is a young man who had his whole life ahead of him. He will now rightly face the consequences of carrying and using a knife. This dreadful incident clearly highlights that carrying a knife can only ever lead to tragedy.”
The court heard how on 22 February 2021 Tyreke saw Samura outside a shop on West Green Road, near to his home address. Samura was there to buy back the PlayStation he had pawned the week before.
Samura asserted that the two men were friends, however their phone contact stopped in November 2020. It is not known why they stopped speaking.
The jury heard that Tyreke approached Samura and they spoke for a few minutes outside the shop. A witness told the court that the men seemed relaxed, like friends talking.
Samura then showed Tyreke an object from his pocket, which seemingly prompted Tyreke to reach for the pocket, and led to the two men struggling in the doorway of the shop.
Tyreke broke free and backed away from Samura. Samura was then seen with a flick-knife in his hand chasing Tyreke down the street and in between parked cars.
Samura caught-up with Tyreke outside a garage where he stabbed him in the chest.
Samura then put the knife in his waistband and ran back to his home in nearby Stanley Road.
Tyreke managed to cross the road to the block of flats where he lived and he collapsed in the communal area. The security guard called 999 at 15:56
Sadly, despite best efforts of police, London Ambulance Service and London’s Air Ambulance, Tyreke was pronounced dead at the scene at 16:46.
Samura got home at 3.58pm and he stayed there until 5.15pm when he was driven away in a car.
He was seen on CCTV to go to a cash machine further east along West Green Road two minutes later. He had changed out of the clothing he was wearing at the time of the stabbing.
Phone records showed he stopped using his mobile phone after the stabbing and he bought a new Oyster card on 23 February 2021 – all efforts to make it difficult for police to locate him.
Officers searched Samura’s home address. A flick-knife, later found to have Tyreke’s blood on it, was found in a kitchen cupboard. Officers also found a large machete in the garden under Samura’s bedroom window and notebooks containing rap lyrics that glorified the use of knives as weapons.
A quantity of cocaine and heroin in wraps was found in his bedroom, with a street value in the region of £600.
Samura was located and arrested just after midnight on 24 February 2021 at a friend’s house in Bow.
He was taken to an east London police station where he answered no comment to all questions in his police interview. He was charged on 25 February 2021.
During his trial, Samura admitted that he caused the injury to Tyreke, but claimed that he did it in self-defence. However, the jury did not believe him and he was convicted as above.
