Nicholas Kini, 21, and a teenager (name withheld), 18, have been found guilty of the murder of 10-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdullah in Kasoa, located in the Central Region.
The jury delivered a unanimous verdict following a full three-year trial.
Kini, who was 18 at the time of the crime, and the teen, who was 15, were convicted for the brutal killing, which occurred in 2021.
Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, the presiding judge, sentenced Kini to life imprisonment, while the younger offender received a three-year sentence in a juvenile correction center.
During the trial, Kini confessed to conspiring with the teen after they had been influenced by a television show promoting money-doubling rituals.
The court heard that they lured the victim, who was their friend, into an uncompleted building under the pretence of giving him a video game kit.
Once inside, they struck him with a pickaxe handle, followed by a cement block and then buried him alive.
The presiding judge, Justice Marfo, in her sentencing, referenced a quote by former U.S. First Lady, Hillary Clinton, saying “Parents of this generation are asleep while their children are wide awake, and the consequences are a silent epidemic.”
This comment reflected the court’s view on the tragic nature of the crime, with two teenagers turning on a young friend with such cruelty.
The prosecution’s case was strengthened by testimonies from seven witnesses, including the victim’s mother, the teen’s sister, a pathologist and a police investigator.
