An Extinction Rebellion activist who was hoping to become a human rights lawyer was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing her fiancé to death on a London street after a drug-fueled argument.
Blaze Lily Wallace, 28, stabbed 34-year-old Samuel Mayo to death using a kitchen knife near their London home as he screamed, “Please, Blaze. I love you. Please, Blaze.” He bled to death while begging passersby to call him an ambulance.
The incident took place following a fight between the couple while both were under the influence of cocaine, heroin and cannabis. Wallace was pregnant at the time. An upstairs neighbor said they heard Mayo shout, “I’m done with you. You’re nasty” just minutes before the killing took place.
Prosecutor Jane Bickerstaff told the jury that the pair had a volatile relationship and argued frequently, and Mayo had apparently decided he was ready to move on that night. CCTV footage captured much of the incident, and it appeared that Wallace followed him as he left the home with a packed bag with the intention of killing him.
"We say this was intentional and with no lawful reason and the defendant's intention at the time was to kill her boyfriend, or at the very least, to cause him really serious harm.
"She concealed the murder weapon and took it back with her to her home."
After a three-week trial, a jury of eight women and four men convicted her of murder unanimously after just over 10 hours of deliberation. They heard how Wallace and Mayo fought in their yard and then she followed him onto the street with a kitchen knife in her pocket. When she caught up to him outside of a brewery, she stabbed him in the heart.
Police officers who responded at the scene recognized Mayo as a local drug user who regularly begged outside a local grocery store and train station. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Although Wallace said that Mayo was armed using an improvised sharp wooden chopstick and that she carried the knife to protect herself, the jury and judge rejected her claim, and no chopstick was found in the area.
During her sentencing, Judge Rajiv Shetty told her: “You stabbed him with sufficient force at a downward angle for the knife to go through his ribcage cartilage and into the heart. He shouted for help and was losing a lot of blood at this time."
Wallace appeared at her sentencing wearing a black sweatshirt featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost and wore her hair in cornrows. Judge Shetty insisted that her actions that night were intentional and that she showed no remorse for what she did.
“In contrast to the people who tried to assist [Mr Mayo], you did nothing and left the scene, allowing him to die and showing a complete lack of remorse that you had stabbed him in the chest.”
Wallace joined Extinction Rebellion protests
Wallace, who earned a law degree in 2017, was a month shy of finishing a master's in human rights and legal practice. She reportedly hoped to become a human rights lawyer working abroad in Asia, Canada and Germany, but she showed little regard for the human life of her fiancé and her child. She gave birth while in custody and her older brother is currently taking care of her daughter.
She was a part of the U.K.-based activist group Extinction Rebellion, attending numerous protests for the group and saying they have “great importance.” The group’s aim, according to its website, is “to use non-violent direct action to persuade governments to act justly on the climate and ecological emergency.”
Its members are known for using dramatic tactics such as blocking bridges and roads, smashing bank windows, spraying buildings with fake blood, and gluing themselves to trains.
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