A murdered Indigenous teenager who was chased into bushland and beaten to death in a racist attack was a peacemaker hoping to stop a fight, his shattered mother says.
Cassius Turvey, a Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after he was deliberately struck to the head in Perth's eastern suburbs on October 13, 2022.
Jack Steven James Brearley, 24, and Brodie Lee Palmer, 30, were convicted in May of murdering the 15-year-old after a 12-week trial.
Mitchell Colin Forth, 27, who was also on trial in the West Australian Supreme Court for Cassius' murder, was found guilty of manslaughter.
They are expected to be sentenced on Friday.
The victim's mother, Mechelle Turvey, told the first day of a two-day sentencing hearing her son was a gentle giant who was unjustly taken from his family and his death "left a void that will never be filled".
"Cassius was not just part of my life," she said in a victim impact statement on Thursday.
"He was my future, my family, my home. The day he was taken from us is the day my world shattered."
Cassius was with fellow students who caught a bus to parklands to watch a fight being talked about on social media.
Brearley, Forth and Palmer intercepted them near the field and Cassius and other "terrified school kids" fled into nearby bushland.
It was there that Brearley caught up with him, the trial heard, before the teen was knocked to the ground and hit in the head with a metal pole.
Cassius was struck at least twice, the impact splitting his ear in half and causing bleeding in his brain.
Outside of court, Ms Turvey said she asked Cassius why he was in the area.
"When Cassius was assaulted, I asked him why he was going to look at a fight, and it's not like Cassius to rock up at a fight, and he said 'I was hoping to either talk them out of it or get them to have a fair fight'," she said.
"That's a testament to Cassius and his mentorship and leadership."
The trial heard Brearley delivered the fatal blows while "hunting for kids" because somebody had smashed his car windows.
It was alleged Forth and Palmer aided him in the common purpose, along with Aleesha Louise Gilmore, 23, who was acquitted of a murder charge.
The attack on Cassius followed a complex series of events that started on October 9 when Forth, Brearley, Gilmore and another man who was tried on lesser charges, Ethan Robert MacKenzie, 21, allegedly "snatched two kids off the street" before punching, kicking and stabbing one of them.
Four days later, Brearley and his co-accused allegedly armed themselves with metal poles pulled from shopping trolleys before climbing into Palmer's ute and driving off to search for youths.
About the same time, Cassius and the other students stepped off the bus.
The five defendants variously faced 21 charges over the events of October 9 and 13.
The jury found them guilty of all except Gilmore's murder charge and a theft charge faced by Brearley.
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Aaron Bunch - AAP
