A man has been jailed for nine years for killing his 25-year-old friend who he stabbed in the neck after they had argued over a €100 debt and a stolen scooter.
Sentencing John Titiloye at the Central Criminal Court on Monday, Mr Justice Paul McDermott said it was hard to believe that such “a paltry sum of money” would generate such a level of bad feeling and violence among men who were former friends.
Titiloye (28), with an address at Mac Uilliam Crescent, Fortunestown, Tallaght, Dublin 24 had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ademola “Dizzy” Giwa in the Mac Uilliam Road area of Tallaght on August 10th 2021. Mr Giwa was from Mac Uilliam Parade.
Titiloye was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter by a Central Criminal Court jury in May. The jurors unanimously rejected the prosecution case that Titiloye was guilty of murder and that he intentionally stabbed Mr Giwa in the neck, intending to kill or cause serious injury, after a row over a stolen scooter.
Before delivering sentence, Mr Justice McDermott said Mr Giwa, who was a much loved son and was of great support to his parents and siblings, was unlawfully killed by Titiloye one month before his 26th birthday. The deceased’s family had spoken lovingly of him and how he had enriched their lives. “The loss to them is incalculable and his father speaks with great dignity and restraint”.
In a victim impact statement read to the court at a previous sitting, Gaffar Giwa, the father of Mr Giwa, said he had lost life’s most precious gift and that “there is no greater pain than to see your child lying in a coffin knowing that he was stabbed to death by a so-called friend”.
Passing sentence Mr Justice McDermott said Titiloye and his two friends had gone to the area where witness Samson Fayemi (26) lived and had confronted him aggressively about a €100 debt owed to the defendant. When Mr Fayemi was not forthcoming, the defendant and his friends forcibly took his scooter and drove off, he said.
Mr Fayemi and Mr Giwa then called to Titiloye’s home at Mac Uilliam Crescent at 6.45pm the following day and a physical altercation broke out, which Anthony Titiloye [the defendant’s father] had involved himself in.
Clearly, said the judge, Mr Fayemi and Mr Giwa wanted to get the scooter back but the defendant was intent on not giving it back and that this was all over a €100 debt.
Mr Justice McDermott said Titiloye had run into the affray, stabbed the deceased and ran away from the scene without offering him any help. The assault on the defendant’s father by Mr Giwa and Mr Fayemi was instantaneous and Titiloye was heard saying “not my dad, not my dad”.
The judge pointed out the defendant had lied to gardaí about the reason he had purchased the knife used in the stabbing.
He said the defendant was captured on CCTV footage swinging “the lethal weapon” at the deceased and had twice made contact with him. He said Titiloye had used disproportionate force as part of a spontaneous response in a pressurised situation.
The judge set the headline sentence at 11 years.
In mitigation, the judge noted the defendant’s regret and remorse. In a letter of apology, Titiloye had said he relives the day of the killing “every day” in his head, held all responsibility for what happened and felt the most remorse for Mr Giwa’s parents. “I wish it was me it happened to instead of him, he was a great man,” the defendant wrote.
Titiloye was sentenced to 10 years in prison with the final year suspended for two years. It was backdated to when he went into custody on August 11th, 2021.
At a previous hearing, Sgt Michael McGrath detailed the background. He told John Byrne SC, prosecuting, that Titiloye and Mr Giwa had been friends in the past and played football together.
The sergeant agreed with Brendan Grehan SC , defending that the matter seemed to have escalated over a paltry sum of money, when Mr Fayemi had declined to pay back the money to the defendant. Counsel said Mr Fayemi had said in his statement he was taking advantage of his friendship with Titiloye by not paying the money back.
Mr Grehan said it was only the apparent striking of Titiloye’s father that prompted the defendant into “the unfortunate and indiscriminate action he engaged in”.
The court had heard Titiloye, who had purchased a knife in an angling and shooting shop in Lucan on the afternoon of August 10th, told the garda who arrested him “I killed him, I’m the man” and “I’m the man you want”.