May 29, 2026 — 5:03pmA 17-year-old boy who left a stranger severely disabled and killed his best friend in a horror car crash faces being sentenced to an adult jail despite the crimes being committed before Victoria’s “adult time for violent crime” laws were introduced.A County Court judge on Friday described the boy’s offending as “extreme and largely unprovoked violence that’s beyond comprehension”, noting the acts were spontaneous and incredibly violent.The crash at Tarneit killed Kevin Olenga, 16, and injured another boy in May 2025.NineWhile the teenager’s crimes occurred before the law came into effect in February, the case was uplifted from the Children’s Court to the County Court on a discretionary basis due to the serious nature of the crimes, and will provide an insight into how minors will be dealt with in higher courts under the new legislation.The court heard that in February 2025, the teenager – who cannot be named due to his age – stomped on a male victim’s head as he lay unconscious in a car park and beat him so badly that he has been left unable to walk or speak without assistance and requires 11 hours of daily NDIS care.The court heard that on February 6, 2025, friends Valentino “Bol” Arop, 36, Jamy Alex, 36, and Mujo Kir, 24, were walking through a communal car park outside residential housing towers on Racecourse Road in Flemington following a nearby gathering.About 1.52am, the 17-year-old offender and five others who were parked nearby in a white Toyota Camry yelled at the trio, who they did not know.After a short verbal argument, the two groups stood near each other before the offender coward-punched Arop, causing him to fall onto the ground unconscious. Over the following 10 minutes, the offender and others repeatedly assaulted Arop and Alex, as Arop lay unmoving with his arms and legs laid out.Police and paramedics arrived after a nearby resident called Triple Zero.Alex was hospitalised with a brain bleed and broken ribs and nose, while Arop spent four days in an induced coma and eight months in rehabilitation before returning home. His injuries included a severe traumatic brain injury, broken ribs, nose and right arm.A second offender, another teenage boy, was later placed on a six-month probation order over his involvement in the attack. Four other males involved remain unidentified.Kevin Olenga, 16, who was killed in the crash at Tarneit on May 18, 2025. Then, on May 18, 2025, 16-year-old Kevin-Lomena Olenga was found dying and hanging out of a black Haval SUV, while the teenager had been ejected from the car and was found lying unconscious on the road.A third passenger had to be freed from his seat by emergency services.The boys were driving home from a party along Dohertys Road in Tarneit at 1.20am when the teen offender careered through a red light and hit another car before spinning off and colliding with a traffic light pole.At the time of the fatal crash, the teenager was drunk, unlicensed, speeding in a stolen car, and had been released on a supervision order in the Children’s Court nine days prior without conviction for burglary-related offences.Police found a machete under the driver’s seat, while the teen recorded a blood-alcohol reading of .13.Kevin, right, died a week after the crash.In a victim impact statement read out by Crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers, SC, Kevin’s mother Bora Mireye said she feared accepting her son’s death, and struggled to speak about him as it hurt too much.“I ask myself why has this happened, did I do something wrong, have I offended God? We came to Australia for a better life, but I feel some children in my community are treated differently by teachers and police,” she wrote.“Kevin was such a good boy at home. Life can be so hard for some young people, I wish it wasn’t so.”Defence barrister Naomi Smith said her client accepted full responsibility for his crimes, was remorseful and still grappling with the sheer devastation that he caused the death of his best friend.Funeral of Kevin Olenga, 16, who was killed from a crash at Tarneit on May 18, 2025.InstagramSmith said her client had a difficult upbringing, saying he had moved houses and schools often, had an absent father and a mother with drug and homelessness issues, and influential older uncles who introduced him to drinking and drugs at a young age.“There has never been a single stable male role model in his life,” Smith said.She argued her client should be sentenced to youth detention because the offending occurred before the state’s “adult time for violent crime” law changes were enacted, saying four years in youth detention would be “sufficient” punishment.Rogers called for the boy to be jailed because the offending was so serious and with such grave and horrifying consequences, describing the attack in Flemington as “gratuitous violence inflicted on a person who was defenceless”. This, she said, had catastrophic consequences for a man the offender had never before met.The 17-year-old has since pleaded guilty to offences including affray, intentionally causing serious injury in circumstances of gross violence, intentionally causing injury, theft, culpable driving causing death, unlicensed driving and possessing a machete.Chief Judge Amanda Chambers will sentence the teenager at a later date.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.From our partners