The victim had just moved into a flat on the street, where he was squatting. He was chased into an alleyway near Hillingdon Street and Langdale Close, SE17, where he was cornered and ambushed by the gang. Metropolitan Police officers arrived at the scene just after 9:15 pm on April 14 last year, following reports of a knife fight, finding Giovanny behind a block of flats with catastrophic stab wounds. Despite emergency services' attempts to save his life, he was pronounced dead less than an hour later, and a post-mortem examination confirmed that Giovanny died from 'multiple sharp-force injuries'.
Detectives believe the targeted killing was the result of escalating tensions between two rival groups in the area. Hernandez was apprehended at the scene shortly after the murder; forensic analysis later identified the victim’s blood on his tracksuit, which also bore slash marks consistent with a knife struggle. Digital forensics implicated the group, as messages recovered from Hernandez’s phone revealed panicked discussions regarding the destruction of evidence and the movement of police. Metropolitan Police detectives reviewed over 1,500 hours of CCTV footage to piece together the group’s movements, and footage identified a property on Langdale Close being used as a squat by the attackers.
Immediately following the killing, Angulo and Boizo fled the squat by taxi to seek refuge at a friend's house. CCTV later captured Angulo changing his clothes and carrying a bin bag, which prosecutors say contained the murder weapons and blood-stained clothing. While some were caught quickly, others attempted to evade justice by fleeing internally and internationally. Jimenez was eventually tracked down and arrested in Chichester after fleeing the capital, and Gonzalez managed to flee the country entirely; following an international search, he was located and arrested near Barcelona on May 19, 2025, before being extradited to the UK to stand trial. Angel Gonzalez Angulo, 19, Christian Batista-Gonzalez, 23, Brian Villada-Hernandes, 19, Zozoro Boizo, 21, and Joseph Jimenez, 22, denied murder but were all convicted after 18 hours of jury deliberation. On Tuesday, exactly one year after the fatal attack, a jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts following an intensive investigation by the Met.