A 17-year-old from Minnesota, alongside another minor, was involved in the tragic stabbing of a 19-year-old, who was attacked 22 times predominantly in the back. The incident was so severe that one of the assailants documented it in his journal. This young individual is now facing a prison sentence.

Jeremy Joe Davila admitted to second-degree murder charges for the killing of Jay’Mier K. Givens and received a 25 1/2-year prison term, with credit for the approximately eight months he had already served. A 14-year-old accomplice, whose identity remains undisclosed due to his age, also faced similar charges.

The St. Paul Police Department responded to a distress call on March 31, 2025, at around 11:30 p.m., finding an unresponsive male on the street. Although paramedics swiftly transported Givens to the hospital, he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

During the sentencing, Givens’ family confronted Davila emotionally.

“I thought that he was your homey, bro,” the victim’s uncle, DeWayne Givens, remarked, as reported by The Pioneer Press in the courtroom coverage.

Davila reportedly held his head down for most of the hearing and only said “may he rest in peace” when a judge asked him if he wanted to say anything.

The victim’s mother spoke about the difficulty she had after giving birth to him when she was 14 years old. Waynesha Givens held her son’s graduation hat and high school diploma, which he earned just four months before his death.

“It was not easy getting there, but we did it,” she recalled.

Waynesha Givens said it was “horrible to me” that her son had such a short life, but her son will always be with her.

“I feel it in my heart. And he made me who I am today,” she said, per the Press.

As Law&Crime previously reported, an autopsy revealed Jay’Mier Givens suffered 22 stab wounds: 18 to the back, two to the upper left arm and one each to the neck and right hand, a probable cause arrest affidavit said.

Givens’ brother told investigators Givens went “to smoke” with his buddies Davila and the 14-year-old whom police identified in the affidavit as JC. The suspects, who are foster brothers, lived about three blocks from where Givens was found. Detectives were able to map out the victim’s movements from the GPS on his phone, and it showed he was near the suspects’ home around the time of the slaying, the affidavit said. Surveillance video also captured three people entering a wooded area but only two running away.

A neighbor said the occupants of the suspects’ house “displayed unusual behavior” in the hours after the homicide, including covering all windows with blankets or curtains, cops noted. Investigators obtained a search warrant for the house on April 8 and ultimately recovered two knives hidden inside the basement rafters, the affidavit said. They also found clothes that matched those of the two suspects captured on the surveillance video, per officers.

Officers arrested JC on May 1 at his temporary foster home. The parents at the home told cops JC seemed anxious in recent days so they gave him a notebook to write down his thoughts. Several pages apparently referenced the homicide.

JC allegedly wrote that “we dropped one” and the victim was “poked in the back” and that “now we are havin hella fun.”

“He tried ta scream. He tried ta run but he aint fight,” the teen also wrote, according to the affidavit. “Why you aint fight for yo life when I poke u wit dis knife.”

While at first denying involvement, JC admitted to stabbing Givens, per the affidavit. He allegedly admitted to chasing him down and attacking him. He said he was beefing with the victim because he was “dissing” his girlfriend’s child, cops wrote.

JC said he and Davila lured Givens out by telling him they were in a stolen car because they knew that would “interest him.”

“That was a cover-up,” JC reportedly said. “There was no car.”

After the homicide, he and Davila went back to their home, washed the knives, and hid them in the basement rafters.

Authorities declined to reveal the fate of the 14-year-old due to privacy laws.