A teenager who murdered his brother with a potato peeler as he tried to break up an argument with their mother has been jailed for life.
Jazzie Watson, 20, stabbed expectant dad Shamus McNama, 17, in the early hours of the morning on February 28.
The tragic youngster was rushed to hospital but later died of his injuries of ‘ten knife-type’ wounds, Bristol Crown Court was told.
Watson was sentenced to life behind bars with a minimum term of 11 years and three months.
Despite the killing mother Paula, 44, shouted ‘I love you son’ as he was led away.
The court heard, half brothers Shamus and Jazzie had both separately gone out drinking with friends the night before the murder.
Prosecuting, Adam Waitilingam said when Shamus returned home at 5am he was confronted by his mum who was angry he had borrowed her car without permission.
The pair began arguing and she told him to leave the house after he had tried to reconcile by offering money for petrol.
Watson, who also returned to the property, took offence to the manner Shamus was talking to their mother.
The court heard he had been banned from staying at the family home in Lockleaze in Bristol in August 2015 because of his ‘problematic and aggressive’ behavior.
A ‘fist-fight’ ensued in the upstairs bedroom and quickly escalated before the pair had to be dragged off each other and restrained.
Jazzie – known as AJ – followed Shamus and his mother downstairs and after the argument reignited he grabbed a five inch utensil from the kitchen.
He repeatedly stabbed his younger brother. The fatal blow being to the upper chest which pierced his aorta and a main artery.
Watson, a trainee electrician, fled while mother-of-five Paula frantically tried to save her motionless son who died in her arms at the bottom of the stairs.
He later walked into a police station and handed himself in.
Defending, Richard Smith said: “He has found it extraordinary difficult to come to terms with what he has done.
“What is clear is this was an utterly disproportionate explosion of temper.
“It was the way he was talking to his mother and acting towards her which was the catalyst for what was to follow. It was dreadful moment, seconds in his life.
“He is a young man that struggles to cope with his emotions. He is someone who has remorse for what he has done.
“It’s a spontaneous outpouring in a moment that he bitterly regrets instantaneously.”
Sentencing Watson, recorder of Bristol Judge Ford QC said: “This was an act with a knife in which multiple blows were struck.
“You were in drink and he had taken cocaine as well. I’m conscious you have a taken a life, a life of a half-brother you loved.
“The anguish and loss you have caused is immeasurable. For all this you still have the love of your mother and other family members.
“I’m satisfied you did not intend to kill but it was a wholly disproportionate response. I’m satisfied you are racked with remorse and self-loathing.”
Watson admitted killing college student Shamus at a previous hearing.
His mother Paula, who is also a grandmother, said she would always love him and longed for the time she can visit him in prison and cuddle him again.
She previously said: “He cannot face me yet and I don’t think he will be able to until he is sentenced, because he is just so broken.
“I am there 100 per cent for him. His life will never be the same again and I still love him so much.”
She added: “They loved each other and AJ never would have wanted that [to happen].
“He has got to carry this with him – that was his little brother and a mistake has cost him dearly.
“He knows what he did was wrong, but his biggest punishment is losing his younger brother.”
Since Shamus’ death, his daughter has been born, and his sister Elischa has had a baby, whom she has named after him.