Teenager guilty of Birmingham rapper murder
A teenager has been found guilty of murdering a young rapper after stabbing him during a confrontation over a woman outside a Birmingham club.
Armani Mitchell was today convicted by a jury at Birmingham Crown Court and sentenced to life with a minimum of 18 years in jail.
The fatal knife attack happened in the car park of Selly Oak nightclub TC's in September 2013 where both killer and victim were attending a memorial event for another youth who had been fatally stabbed in Birmingham only the year before.
Mitchell of The Green, Northfield, Birmingham was carrying a hunting knife with a three-inch blade which he claimed he carried for protection, police said.
When he saw Joshua Ribera in the nightclub with his arm around a girlfriend he became 'enraged' according to detectives and the two men came to blows.
Later on, outside in the car park, Mitchell knifed Joshua who collapsed, mortally wounded, against a car while his attacker ran off.
Despite the first aid efforts of party-goers, paramedics and later hospital doctors, Joshua - known by his stage name of Depzman - died in the early hours of September 21.
Detective Inspector Gary Plant, said Joshua had "needlessly lost his life" describing him as a young man with "a very promising future in the music industry" and everything to live for.
Joshua's mother Alison Cope paid tribute to her son as "a genuine and unique person, so kind-hearted, so full of life and he had blossomed into a beautiful young man that anyone would be very proud of."
