His reputation was at stake. As a result, influencer Keneff Leauva, 40, stabbed to death in April 2021 another internet user, Mamadi T., alias “Moussa VR6”. A chilling homicide broadcast live on the Internet. This Friday, the Assize Court of Seine-Saint-Denis sentenced the influencer to nineteen years in prison for the murder of this other Internet user.
The victim showed up at 6 a.m. at the home of Keneff Leauva, son of actress Firmine Richard (Eight women, Romuald and Juliet, The Profs 2…) where he still lived, in Pantin to explain himself after an altercation in front of 500 spectators on the live video application Bigo Live, whose community revels in “clashes” and “displays” of all kinds. After an hour and a half of deliberation, the court retained a sentence below the 25 years of criminal imprisonment required by the prosecution. The jury considered that Keneff Leauva did not premeditate his gesture, therefore dismissing the murder charge.
“Believe me, he will no longer sing on the Internet”
Keneff Leauva’s business: his reputation as a “clasheur”. So he does not hesitate to defend it offline by crossing France to fight with an opponent. This spiral of violence has already cost him a phalanx torn off in a fight and a stay of several months in prison.
When Mamadi T. showed up at his home early in the morning with another internet user, Keneff Leauva was therefore convinced that his opponent had come to hit him and broadcast his humiliation on Bigo Live. “Afterwards, people would have laughed: ”It’s the second time that Keneff the brawler has eaten a wank on the networks!”” he gritted in the dock.
During the fight between the two men, Keneff Leauva grabbed a kitchen knife from the dish rack on the way out and struck his opponent three times in the chest. He and his defense maintained that he did not, however, intend to kill. “I didn’t think they were fatal blows, I thought they were punches. I said to myself ”I put spades, he’s going to be sewn up””, he justified himself at the hearing.
Back home, Keneff Leauva debriefed the match on Snapchat with a virtual friend before the police came to arrest him. “Believe me, he will no longer sing on the Internet,” the man then boasted.