Five guilty of machete murder of two teens in mistaken identity horror

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Four teenagers and a 45-year-old man have been convicted of murdering two young lads in a case of mistaken identity.

Mason Rist, 15, and Max Dixon, 16, tragically died after they were attacked with machetes after leaving Mason's home on Ilminster Avenue in the Knowle West area in Bristol shortly after 11pm on January 27.

Following a six-week trial at Bristol Crown Court, Riley Tolliver, 18, a 16-year-old boy, a 17-year-old boy and getaway driver Antony Snook, 45, were found guilty of the murders of Mason and Max by a jury of nine men and three women.

As reported by the Mirror, a 15-year-old boy was also found guilty of the murder of Max after previously pleading guilty to the murder of Mason. As part of a revenge mission, Tolliver and the three boys - who cannot be named for legal reasons - had been driven to and from Knowle West by Snook.

Snook will be sentenced on November 19 at Bristol Crown Court. The other four defendants will be sentenced on December 16 following the preparation of pre-sentence reports. As the jury foreman returned the verdicts none of the defendants showed any reaction from the dock. They sat impassively and stared straight ahead.

Members of Mason and Max's families, who were sat in the public gallery overlooking the court, cried as the guilty verdicts were given. Other relatives cheered and punched the air. Trial judge Mrs Justice May thanked the jury for their work over the last five weeks.

She said: “Jury service is probably the most important public service you are asked to make. Some cases are particularly demanding on a jury and we are all aware this has been one of those.”

The two boys had been wrongly identified as being responsible for bricks being thrown at a house in the rival Hartcliffe district earlier that evening. Snook left the property with two of the boys and picked up the other two in a nearby street around an hour after that attack before heading to Knowle West.

The Audi Q2 was driven around Knowle West for at least 12 minutes before the attack, the jury was told. Snook drove down Ilminster Avenue and when they saw Mason and Max in the street they wrongly believed they had spotted those responsible for the attack.

Ray Tully KC, prosecuting, told the jury: “They were entirely wrong about that. Max and Mason had absolutely nothing to do with any earlier incident and no connection whatsoever with those events.”

Tolliver, who had a baseball bat, and the three teenagers armed with machetes jumped out of the car and chased after the two boys. Max and Mason are seen going to different sides of the street, each pursued by two people from the vehicle.

Tolliver and the 15-year-old boy attacked Mason, while the 16-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy chased Max. The 17-year-old boy also struck Mason, who was lying injured on the ground, as he headed back to the Audi after attacking Max.

A CCTV camera on Mason’s nearby house captured how the attack lasted just 33 seconds from the car pulling up to the teenagers getting back in and leaving. Mason and Max sustained fatal stab injuries, and both died in hospital in the early hours of January 28.

Footage played in court during the trial, showed four teenage boys armed with some what the prosecution described as "some pretty fearsome weapons" as they drove past them in an Audi Q2 car. Bristol Crown Court heard how the group believed that Mason and Max had hurled bricks at a house in the Hartcliffe area earlier that evening. The four teens reportedly hopped out of the vehicle and knifed them.

The boys died in hospital in the early hours of the morning after the 33-second attack. Speaking after the verdicts, Detective Superintendent Gary Haskins, senior investigating officer at Avon and Somerset Police, said Max and Mason had been going for a pizza when they were fatally attacked in a case of mistaken identity.

“They are beautiful boys, going about their business, in their own community when they were senselessly attacked by the individuals for no reason,” he told the PA news agency.

“What we know is that they passed Max when he was walking towards Mason’s house. Then Mason walks out of his house and joins Max. The vehicle is passing, they think ‘that’s them, they will do’. They were hunting around Knowle to find people. We know they had driven around Knowle two-and-a-half times before they came across these two boys.”

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