A getaway driver who ferried four teenagers around before they murdered two best friends with machetes in a case of mistaken identity has been jailed for life.
Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, were hacked to death after being ‘hunted’ through the streets of Bristol by a gang of youths who were ‘armed to the teeth’ and bent on revenge for an earlier skirmish.
But the city’s crown court heard the pals were wrongly identified and had absolutely nothing to do with the prior incident.
Antony Snook, 45, Riley Tolliver, 18, and three teenagers aged 15, 16 and 17 – who cannot be named for legal reasons – were all found guilty of the double murder last Friday.
Snook, a one-legged landscape gardener, was given a life sentence today with a minimum term of 38 years.
The other four will be sentenced on December 16 when reports will have been completed.
Mason’s mum Nikki Knight said in a victim impact statement read by prosecutor Ray Tully KC that ‘she hopes that Mason will still walk through her door, though she knows that will never happen’.
Mr Tully went on: ‘She, as a mother, feels she failed to protect her son. That is a thought that will stay with her.
‘Ultimately, she says when trying to find words to put her emotions and feelings down on paper, it is an impossible task.
‘She speaks about the fact she still can’t go into his bedroom because of the feelings she knows she will have, simply being in that room.’
Max’s mother Leanne Ekland described how she cradled her son’s head as he lay dying and held back tears reliving the moment he briefly opened his eyes and told her he ‘just wanted to go to sleep’.
She said: ‘I sat on the ground with Max’s head between my legs, telling him to open his eyes. He said he just wanted to sleep.
‘The paramedics were working on him, cutting away at his clothes. He was so pale.’
Ms Ekland told how she screamed after being told at Southmead Hospital that her son would not survive his injuries.
‘We were taken to a room where a doctor came in and said, “I am sorry…” I didn’t let him finish. I screamed and ran out of the room and fell to the floor,’ she said.
‘My heart was ripped out and the pain was unbearable. I knew then my life had been changed and my heart ripped out. I have never felt so much pain.
‘When we were allowed to see Max, we walked in on them trying to save him, then stop and record his time of death. All I wanted to do was hold him and I wasn’t allowed because he was a crime scene.’
Ms Ekland attended each day of his trial, including on Max’s 17th birthday when evidence from the pathologist was heard.
She described her son as a ‘big character’ who was funny, kind and caring, and popular among his friends.
Speaking to Snook, Ms Ekland said: ‘My son didn’t deserve to die and neither did Mason. Our families didn’t deserve to go through this.
‘Due to your actions that night, two families have been destroyed.
‘There are no words to describe how much I love my son, no words to describe the pain of losing him. Our family unit has been destroyed.’
Snook drove Tolliver and the three boys to and from West Knowle as part of their misguided revenge mission.
Mason and Max had been wrongly identified as being responsible for bricks being thrown at a house in the rival Hartcliffe district earlier that evening.
Around an hour after that attack, Snook left the property with two of the boys and picked up the other two in a nearby street before heading to Knowle West.
The Audi Q2 was driven around Knowle West for at least 12 minutes before the attack, the jury was told.
Snook drove down Ilminster Avenue when they saw Mason and Max in the street as they went for a pizza – wrongly believing they had spotted those responsible for the attack.
Mr Tully told the jury: ‘They were entirely wrong about that. Max and Mason had absolutely nothing to do with any earlier incident and no connection whatsoever with those events.’
Tolliver, who had a baseball bat, and the three teenagers armed with machetes jumped out of the car and chased after the two boys.
Max and Mason are seen going to different sides of the street, each pursued by two people from the vehicle.
Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy attacked Mason while the 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy chased Max.
The 17-year-old boy also struck Mason, who was lying injured on the ground, as he headed back to the Audi after attacking Max.
A CCTV camera on Mason’s nearby house captured how the attack lasted just 33 seconds from the car pulling up to the teenagers getting back in and leaving.
Mason and Max sustained fatal stab injuries, and both died in hospital in the early hours of January 28.
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