Joevester Takyi-Sarpong: Doncaster drug dealers stabbed rival to death

Jacob Carroll and Jordan Davies have been jailed for a minimum of 22 years each

Two drug dealers who stabbed a rival in the legs and left him to bleed to death have been jailed for life.

Jacob Carroll, 27, and Jordan Davies, 26, were each sentenced to a minimum of 22 years for the murder of Joevester Takyi-Sarpong in Doncaster.

Passing sentence at Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Jeremy Richardson QC said the pair's attack in October 2021 was to "scare him off their patch".

Carroll and Davies, of no fixed abode, were both convicted after a trial.

Mr Takyi-Sarpong had recently started a job as a junior software developer

The court heard Mr Takyi-Sarpong had been walking through Doncaster with a friend on 31 October when they encountered Carroll and Davies at about 23:00 GMT.

Both men tried to run away but Carroll and Davies chased them before cornering Mr Takyi-Sarpong in the yard behind the former Doncaster County Court in College Road.

Judge Richardson said Carroll stabbed the victim in his legs, severing a major artery and vein, before fleeing the scene.

His body was discovered the following morning by a passing motorist.

The judge said while Carroll inflicted the fatal blow Davies had helped trap Mr Takyi-Sarpong and "would have done the same had [he] been nearer to you".

'Merely a shell'

He told the defendants: "You both participated in stabbing a man with a view to scaring him off from drug dealing on what you regarded as your patch for peddling illegal drugs on the Balby housing estate."

"Those who kill others in the way you did, and against the backdrop of carrying knives associated with drug dealing, must expect to be punished with appropriate severity," he added.

In a victim impact statement, Mr Takyi-Sarpong's father said: "On Sunday 31 October 2021 we were a normal happy family - since the discovery of Joe's body the following day we are merely a shell.

"We walk and talk but none of us are really here.

"We think of Joe constantly and visit his grave at the cemetery every day.

"The CCTV that was played in court showing him being chased will haunt me until my dying day."