News / Crime
Ban on naming 17-year-old lifted at sentencing of murderers of Max and Mason
Four of the five convicted for the murders of Max Dixon and Mason Rist were sentenced on Thursday.
A 15-year-old teenager, the youngest of the four, was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 15 years and 229 days while a 16-year-old teenager was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 18 years and 44 days.
Both the other offenders were also sentenced to life with 18-year-old Riley Tolliver receiving a minimum term of 23 years and 47 days and a 17-year-old was sentenced to a minimum of 23 years and 44 days.
During the sentencing, the ban on naming the 17-year-old offender was also lifted and he was subsequently named as Kodi Wescott.
Max and Mason were stabbed by the five offenders in January – photo: Max and Mason’s family
A home was hit with bricks a few days before the murders, and Wescott along with the others had misidentified Max and Mason as being responsible for the brick attack. It was revealed in court on Thursday that it was Wescott’s home that had been attacked before the murders.
Wescott’s older brother Bailey Wescott was also sentenced on Wednesday, for aiding Kodi and the other offenders after the murders. He was sentenced alongside another man.
While going through the sentencing, the judge explained that these sentences are just the “starting points” and not the “endpoints”.
She clarified that taking into account the defendants’ ages was not enough.
Two of the many aggravating factors in this case, as explained by the judge, were the fact that the attack took place on a residential street that was close to Mason’s home and that it was motivated by revenge.
45-year-old Antony Snook was the first to be sentenced for the murders of the two best friends in November.
A trial is due in 2025 for two other people who are believed to have assisted Snook, Tolliver and the teenagers after the stabbing.
Main photo: Avon and Somerset Police
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