Ryleigh Naidoo, 18, was sentenced on Monday in the Pinetown Magistrate’s Court for the murder of his fellow pupil Jayden Glazer who was 15 when he stabbed and killed him in 2022 at an arranged fist fight after school. Picture: Anelisa Kubheka
Durban — The Pinetown Magistrate’s Court has sentenced a teenager who was convicted of stabbing and killing a fellow pupil to five years imprisonment.
Last month, Ryleigh Naidoo was found guilty of the murder of Jayden Glazer whom he stabbed at an arranged fistfight after school in 2022 in Ashley, Pinetown.
On Monday in sentence Magistrate L Gurie said a wholly suspended sentence would have been inappropriate, it would not have been rehabilitative nor retributive.
She said the court would not impose direct imprisonment but would impose imprisonment to ensure that the accused is given an opportunity to rehabilitate himself with the hope that the sentence prevents him from engaging in violent behaviour.
“I can’t see the court imposing a sentence of correction supervision which is a sentence served on the outside, under house arrest. At the end of the day, the retributive aspect of a sentence would not have been served. There are very strong and compelling reasons to adhere to the State’s request for a direct imprisonment.”
At the time of the murder, the teenagers were pupils at Chosen Independent Studies where Glazer was in grade 9 and Naidoo was in grade 10.
Naidoo was 16 at the time while Glazer was 15.
The trial was heard in-camera due to him and the other witnesses being underage. However, the accused turned 18 at the end of January when arguments by the defence and State on the merits of the case were heard before a judgment ruling was made.
Gurie said Naidoo’s actions following the murder were telling in terms of remorse.
Naidoo’s evidence was that he had walked from the scene, went back with his girlfriend to her house where he cleaned the steak knife, placing back in the drawer, and proceeded to go sit at the back of the house with his girlfriend.
“You did not react timeously and didn't do what was necessary…The right thing to have done would have been to stop after the stabbing…How do you leave an injured person who you had said was a friend without calling an ambulance or crying out for help? Those actions will be perceived as that you didn't care, that you took a knife to attack and afterwards had no compassion and walked away.”
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News