Repeat Offender Given Second Life Sentence After Charges Dropped
A man has been jailed for life after committing a second murder even though charges had been dropped in another killing. Nyron Jean-Baptiste, a 22-year-old drill rapper affiliated with the M20 gang, killed 15-year-old Jai Hughes after previously being let off for a separate murder case. Jean-Baptiste was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 19 years for the murder of Hughes, and later was found guilty of murdering 17-year-old Michael Jonas in Betts Park, receiving an additional 31-year sentence. Six other men were also convicted for Jonas’s murder and received varying sentences. DNA evidence tied Jean-Baptiste to the scene where Jonas was killed a month after the 2018 killing of Hughes. Previous charges against Jean-Baptiste and the others were dropped in 2018, but new evidence resurfaced in 2022, leading to their retrial and conviction. During his 2019 trial, it was revealed that Jean-Baptiste, already a multiple-time knife crime offender, had a musical career in drill rap songs glorifying violence. The victims’ families expressed their devastation at the losses.
