Man jailed for murder of Barking's Dean Pascal-Modeste

Jahtel Williamson, 26, was found guilty of the murder of Dean Pascal-Modeste, 21, on Thursday (October 20).

On Tuesday, October 25, Williamson was sentenced to life in prison and recommended to serve at least 23 years.

Williamson had been deported from Washington DC on May 1 this year.

After his arrival at Heathrow Airport, Williamson was taken to a west London police station where he was charged with the fatal stabbing.

On February 24, 2017, the victim, Dean Pascal-Modeste, travelled from his home in Barking to Grove Park.

Dean Pascal-Modeste (Image: Metropolitan Police)

He and two friends had gone to the Chinbrook Estate in Grove Park to take part in the recording of a music video.

One of Dean’s friends went inside a house whilst Dean and a second friend waited outside.

Two mopeds pulled up close to Dean and his friends - a youth on one of the mopeds produced a gun and pointed it at the pair before they ran away.

As they ran, a group of six youths began to chase Dean and his friend.

Dean and his friend ran in different directions, and Dean was hunted down and surrounded.

The group then crowded around Dean and attacked him.

Dean sustained 14 separate stab wounds and two of the blows were struck with such force it penetrated his left lung.

A post-mortem examination later gave these two wounds as the primary cause of death.

After the attack, the gang ran off and the mopeds drove away – meanwhile, Dean was left on the ground and bled to death.

Emergency services soon arrived but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say the reason for the attack was due to gang rivalry, although Dean was not in a gang.

Dean was interested in music and had met a man who ran a music production company.

Dean told people he “believed this man would be able to help him make a successful career” as a music producer.

However, it was his music interest that brought him into contact with those who were in gangs and the two friends he went with on that fatal day were both involved in gang activity.

Police assume it was “probably” the presence of his friends on the estate which caused the rival gang to launch their attack.

Williamson is the sixth person charged with Dean’s murder and the fifth to be convicted.

Williamson was linked to the others who carried out the attack by phone records.

These placed him at the scene and as a result of the searches police conducted of the area, a number of knives were recovered that forensically linked some of the suspects to the murder.

Extensive CCTV enquiries had placed the group together and police could prove Williamson was part of the gang who carried out the attack.

Officers were also aided by members of the public who came forward and gave evidence during the court proceedings.

After the stabbing, Williamson had flown out of Gatwick Airport on February 28, 2017, to Iceland and he then went on to Baltimore, USA.

In 2018, the U.K Government made a request to the U.S. Department of State for the extradition of Jahtel Williamson.

The following year, Williamson was traced to an address in Durham, North Carolina.

On March 4, 2021, the defendant was arrested and remanded in custody in North Carolina.

The first trial took place in the autumn of 2017; during that trial Corey Donaldson and Alex Scott were convicted of the murder of Dean Pascal-Modeste, another man was found not guilty.

In the spring of 2018, Kai Stewart and Devone Pusey, at the second trial in the case, were both convicted of the murder of Dean.

Det Ch Insp Nigel Penney, of the Met’s Specialist Crime, said: “This defendant was part of gang who carried out a savage attack in broad daylight.

“Many had armed themselves and then set out determined to do violence.

“Dean was an innocent person, but that was immaterial, their blood was up and they hunted Dean through the streets, surrounded him and murdered him."

He thanked the "many local residents who went to Dean's aid or came forward as witnesses".