Max Richardson, 35, approached 19-year-old Tieran Carmody as he was using cannabis while standing atop a bicycle close to Joyners Field in Harlow, according to Essex Police.
Carmody had been hanging around a play park and several residences.
According to the force, when Mr. Richardson questioned Carmody about why he was frightening kids, Carmody retaliated, and a fight broke out.
Carmody took out a long, bladed weapon from his knapsack and gave Mr. Richardson a single stab wound to the stomach. At this point, Mr. Richardson was holding out his hands in a surrendering gesture.
On August 21, last year, the defendant, a resident of Harlow, rode away from the scene on his bike, and Mr. Richardson passed away en route to the hospital.
After going on the run, Carmody was apprehended in Basildon six days later.
Carmody denied murder, according to Essex Police, but a jury at Chelmsford Crown Court on Friday found him guilty.
According to Essex Police’s Serious Crime Directorate Detective Chief Inspector Ashley Howard, Mr. Richardson passed away in the “most cruel and needless fashion.”
DCI Howard remarked, “Max had everything ahead of him.”
Rather, he was murdered for merely being concerned about his neighborhood’s security.
“He perished as a result of Carmody’s decision to carry a big knife, which he said he did so for protection but which he actually used to kill an unknown individual.
“Carmody killed Max because he was offended that someone had the audacity to disagree with him,” according to the statement.
On an unspecified date, Carmody is expected to receive his sentencing at the same court.
Harrison Barnett, a 19-year-old who assisted Carmody while he was evading capture, was convicted guilty of perverting the course of justice at Chelmsford Crown Court, according to Essex Police.
At a later time, Basildon resident Barnett will also receive a sentence.
In a statement made public by the police, Mr. Richardson’s family said he was the “life and soul of us all.”
Words cannot express the suffering we are all experiencing, they added, adding that he will “always be in the hearts of his family and his children now”.
