Grieving family of Brooklyn stabbing victim leaves his killer speechless at sentencing

A man sentenced for fatally stabbing a 21-year-old man who had just gotten a holiday haircut in a senseless street clash was left speechless Friday after listening to angry impact statements from victim Tyler Kobe Nichols’ family — and stunning words of forgiveness from Tyler’s shattered mother.

“You have changed our lives forever, but we have turned our pain into purpose and because of that I forgive you,” Nichols’ mother, Sherma Chambers, told Javokhir Nematov, who pleaded guilty to killing her son last month. “I can move on.”

Nematov, 22, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree on Jan. 16 with the understanding that he would serve 19 years in prison for the Dec. 23, 2020, killing.

“I hope you take this time to reflect on your actions that night and how it impacted your family and mine,” Chambers said.

A handful of Nematov’s relatives, including an older woman who was openly weeping, were also seated in the gallery at Judge Rhonda Tomlinson’s courtroom at Brooklyn Supreme Court, but left without speaking to the press.

Nichols and his older brother Shayne had just gotten haircuts so they could look their best at an upcoming Christmas dinner when a group of men sitting in a car began staring them down on Coney Island Ave. and Turner Place in Kensington, just a few short blocks from their home.

“What are you looking at?” the strangers, who included Nematov, said as they bailed out of the car and attacked the two siblings.

“It happened fast,” Shayne told the Daily News following the stabbing. “We were just fighting. It was over nothing. They came up to us and started trying to tussle. We defended ourselves. I looked at my brother, I said, ‘Let’s go.’ He wasn’t comprehending what I was saying to him. He said, ‘I think I got stabbed.’ And he just dropped to the ground.”

Nichols was stabbed five times — in his heart, lung, liver and kidney — Brooklyn prosecutors said. He died of his injuries at New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital.

Detectives arrested Nematov four months after the killing after he was pulled over in the blue Honda Fit that was seen at the stabbing. His accomplices were never caught.

Shayne stood by his mother at the sentencing. He looked into Nematov’s eyes as he spoke from the heart.

“I light candles for my dead brother on my birthday,” he said. “He didn’t get to see his niece grow up. You f—ed up our lives, for what? Because you thought you were tough. You thought you were doing something? You got street cred, you got props and that makes you a gangster? You’re in jail now. You threw your life away for what? Think about it.”

In total, six relatives and Nichols’ girlfriend Ashely Duverneau addressed Nematov. Duverneau wasn’t as forgiving as Nichols’ mother.

“To know Tyler was to know genuine love. It was to know peace,” she said. “Before this, our life was quiet. We were at peace, just as a regular family. We never knew such pain.

“May every time you close your eyes his face is what you see, his name is what you hear,” she told her love’s killer. “May you never live in peace.”

The sharp words hit the mark. When Judge Tomlinson asked Nematov if he wanted to say anything before she passed her sentence, he whispered quietly to his attorney Albert Dayan.

“[The defendant] asked me to tell the court he has nothing to say at this time,” Dayan told the court. “It’s not because he has nothing to say, he’s just purely speechless. He wants the court to know that he’s overwhelmed with all the emotions and everything that’s been said. Neither he nor anyone else in the courtroom had expected that type of outcry by an amazing family, an amazing family.”

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez called Nichols’ murder a “heartbreaking and senseless act of violence”

“While no sentence can ever make up for their pain, today’s outcome ensures that the defendant is held accountable,” Gonzalez said.

After court, Dayan was still awestruck by what Nichols’ mother said to his client and his client’s family.

“She felt compassion for the defendant’s mother,” Dayan said. “Those things are extraordinary.”