Kacey Boothe alleged killer boasted about death, court told

Kacey Boothe was killed with the same gun which his brother had previously been shot with,a jury heard

A drill rapper boasted that a man shot dead outside a baby's first birthday party was killed with the same gun used on the victim's brother two years earlier, the Old Bailey has heard.

Kacey Boothe, 25, was fatally shot outside the Peterhouse Community Centre in Walthamstow, north-east London, on 13 August last year.

Six men have gone on trial accused of his murder, which they deny.

The jury has also heard Mr Boothe was not the intended target.

Prosecutors believe the alleged killers planned to shoot Khalid Samanter, who was a close friend of Mr Boothe and the father of the child whose party was being held.

The Old Bailey heard that Mr Boothe had just got into his car at about 21:20 BST when he was shot in a "well-planned and carefully orchestrated attack".

The shooting took place "against a background of violent incidents" arising from rivalry between two gangs, with which Mr Boothe and Mr Samanter and the defendants associated, the court was told.

Jurors were told how the same gun had been used on seven occasions in the previous two years, including to shoot Mr Boothe's older brother Kyle Boothe, who survived, in August 2020.

'A boast'

The court heard that drill rapper Kammar Henry-Richards, who uses the street name Kay-O, allegedly boasted about the killing in a video weeks later.

The lyrics read: "Big Boothe and Little got hit, same Sig, that's a sour family".

Prosecutor Anthony Orchard KC told jurors: "A boast was being made that the same 'Sig' (gun) had been used to shoot both Kacey Boothe and his elder brother Kyle Boothe.

"This fact was known only to those involved in the shootings and not to the police at that time," Mr Orchard said.

Mr Orchard told jurors: "The prosecution case is each of these defendants were party to the conspiracy to kill Mr Samanter.

"They also intended that should Samanter not be an available target, then another London Fields associate, in this case Kacey Boothe, should be shot.

Henry-Richards, 25, Kadeem Brightly-Barnes, 31, Kamani Brightly-Donaldson, 23, Jeffrey Gyimah, 21, Joao Pateco-Te, 26, and Roody Thomas, 26, all deny the murder of Mr Boothe, conspiracy to murder Mr Samanter and conspiracy to possess a firearm or firearms with intent to endanger life.

The trial continues.

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