The family of Jayran Elliot has found justice four years after the 13-year-old was gunned down on a Bronx street, with his youthful killer sentenced to 15 years in prison in exchange for pleading guilty on Thursday.
The shooter, Jahlil Califf, now age 20, was just 16 when he opened fire on Jayran on a hot summer afternoon in 2021. Califf pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree in the youth part of Bronx Supreme Court in a plea deal, avoiding the possibility of being convicted of the top charge of murder had the case gone to trial.
The victim’s mother, Mal Elliot, wept in the gallery as Califf admitted to killing her son.
“We waited four long years for this,” she told the Daily News outside the courtroom. “It’s not 100 percent what we want, but I’m glad to go away with something.”
“I didn’t have any hopes for trial…” she said. “I was willing to do it if I had to.”
“My son was only 13 years old walking down the street, not bother[ing] anyone. It’s just a tragic death. I will never forget my son.”
Jaryan Elliot was standing outside Angels Cafe in Belmont just after 3:15 p.m. on July 11, 2021, when a shooter stepped out of a car and opened fire, according to police.
He was struck by several bullets and later died at St. Barnabas Hospital.
Speaking outside court Thursday, the teen’s mother was still deeply grieving the loss of her boy.
“We’re going to continue to just pray and ask God to guide us from now to eternity,” she said. “I know my son is in a good place, he’s in heaven and he’s resting peacefully. He’s an angel. He lost his life an angel and he’s with God.”
The shooting was one of several involving youthful victims and offenders in the Bronx that summer, marking a troubling spike in gang activity that Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark then called “an utter catastrophe.”
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Barry Williams/for New York Daily News Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark speaks during a press conference announcing the indictment of 13 men and teen boys for violent crimes, including two murders — one of them of Jayran Elliot — on Oct. 7, 2021, in the Bronx, New York. (Barry Williams)
The same day Jayran was killed, 16-year-old Ramon Gil-Medrano died after being blasted in the head and torso by two gunmen on scooters as he sat in the back of a livery cab at E. 178th St. and Valentine Ave. in Tremont shortly after 11:30 p.m.
A year earlier, Ramon had also been wounded in a shooting. Family members said he had taken the livery cab because he thought it was the safest way to travel.
“These defendants are charged in a string of violent crimes, culminating in the murders of two boys, that contributed to a brutal summer,” Clark said four years ago at the indictments of 13 men and teens for murders and violence, including Califf and his sidekick Justin Baez, 18, who was also charged in Jayran’s death.
“These indictments are an assurance to the people of the Bronx that we will hold accountable anyone who brings gunfire to our streets,” she added. “But these indictments are also a tragic chronicle of a lost generation: boys and young men who turned to guns, and two lives were taken and 14 lives have been squandered.”
Compared to 2021, the number of shooting victims in the Bronx today has decreased by more than half. Four years ago, there were 77 shooting victims in the borough through this point in July compared to 30 victims so far in 2025, according to NYPD CompStat data.
