Home | WebMail |

      Calgary | Regions | Local Traffic Report | Advertise on Action News | Contact

Montreal

Andrei Donet found guilty of 2nd-degree murder of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey

Andrei Donet, who was 18 at the time he was arrested in connection with the case, will receive an automatic life sentence.

Conviction comes with automatic life sentence

Young man wearing blue Adidas jacket
Andrei Donnet has been found guilty of the second-degree murder of Jannai Dopwell-Bailey. (Submitted by the Court)

A jury found Andrei Donet guilty of the second-degree murder of 16-year-old Jannai Dopwell-Bailey.

Donet was 18 when hewas arrested in connection with the case in 2021. The second-degree murder conviction comes with an automatic life sentence in prison with no possibility of parole before 10 years.

Dopwell-Bailey was fatally stabbed outside a high school in Montreal's Cte-des-Neiges district in 2021.

Crown prosecutor Katerine BrabantsaidDonet'sdistinctive tattoos seen in a videohe published on social media after the attackhelped identify him, leading to his arrest. In the video, Donet, wearing a balaclava, wields a can of pepper spray with tattooed fingers as a second boy flashes a knife at the camera.

A minor was also convicted for second-degree murder in December 2023 for the same case. The identity of the teen is protected by a publication ban because he was a minor when he stabbed Dopwell-Bailey.

Though the jury recommended Donet be eligible for parole after 12 years in prison,sentencing will be debated at the end of the month.

Woman stands outside a field
Onica John, Jannai Dopwell-Bailey's cousin, says the people found guilty of murdering Jannai should not be eligible for parole. (Onica John/Kwabena Oduro)

Onica John,Dopwell-Bailey's cousin, says a 12-year sentence "means absolutelynothing" to her family, consideringthe people who murdered him shared a video of the killingonline and expressed no remorse.

"The pain will always be there," she said. "This is something we have to live with for the rest of our life."

John said a sentence of that length isa "slap on the wrist" and signals to other people that it's "OK to kill" when you have issues with someone.

"Jannai's death was brutal. It was premeditated. It was planned," she said. "You don't show up to a school with a knife to play."

With files from Radio-Canada's Valrie-Micaela Bain and Kwabena Oduro