Two Peckham brothers who murdered a man in Peckham Rye Park for his mobile phone have been jailed for a combined 45 years.
Nah’shun Thomas, 20, and Nyran Thomas, 17, were sentenced at Croydon Crown Court today (Wednesday, May 15).
Victim Kalabe Legesse, 29, was relaxing on a park bench when he was stabbed in the chest on December 30, 2022.
Nah’shun, the eldest, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 25 years and three months imprisonment.
Younger brother Nyran, who can only now be named after the judge lifted reporting restrictions, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of nineteen years and ten months.
Kalabe was outside the park cafe on Strakers Road when the defendants approached him riding bikes at around 8pm.
The Thomas brothers had committed two robberies earlier and, armed with a knife, threatened to steal Kalabe’s phone.
Kalabe was stabbed once in the chest and died at the scene, despite the best efforts of paramedics and officers.
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A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as a haemorrhage from a stab wound to the heart.
Kalabe had been on the phone with a friend when the defendants approached him.
The friend would later tell police that he heard the suspects say: “Where are you from?’ and “What have you got on you?”.
The defendants fled the scene so officers trawled through hundreds of hours of CCTV to trace their movements.
Officers identified their home addresses and both were arrested on suspicion of murder on Thursday, January 19.
When officers searched Nyran’s home address, they found a hunting knife wrapped in a black puffer coat in his grandmother’s bedroom.
Forensic examination found traces of Kalabe’s blood inside the knife’s sheath.
The brothers were charged on January 21, 2023, and were found guilty of murder on January 5, 2024.
They have also been sentenced for two counts of robbery each. Na’shun was sentenced to 30 months for each while Nyran received twenty months for each. Those sentences will run concurrently.
A spokesperson for Kalabe’s family said: “Nothing can bring back our son Kalabe. He was doing nothing wrong on the night that he was killed and we will never understand why he was murdered over a mobile phone. The defendants have not shown any remorse for what they did to him. We have recently passed the anniversary of his death; Christmas and New Year for us will never be the same again.
“Kalabe was loved by everyone he met and had an exciting future ahead of him. He will never be able to have a family of his own, and our family will never have him back.
“We are grateful to the investigation team for their hard work for over a year to bring these people to justice.”
DI Guttridge said: “My thoughts today are with Kalabe Legesse’s family as they continue to come to terms with their loss. It is my sincere wish that they find some comfort in knowing that justice has been served.”
