FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Florida rapper YNW Melly left a trail of photographs, videos, and messages that a Broward Sheriff’s Office detective said were evidence of gang affiliation.
Prosecutors accused Jamell “Melly” Demons of being associated with the Bloods and alleged this was the motive for the 2018 murders of two YNW Collective rappers.
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“Mr. Demons is wearing plenty of red,” BSO Detective Danny Polo said during his testimony on Monday in court.
For the last few days in court, Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley asked Polo, a gang expert, to connect Demons’s hand signs, clothing, and communication style to the G-Shine Bloods set.
“I want you to really think about the power you possess lil brother. I’m just here to show you how to use it,” a man identified as Gino, a G-Shine member, wrote in a text message on Dec. 12, 2018.
Polo said Gino regularly used gang-rank terminology such as “Askari” and “DON” in text messages that he believed were part of an effort to recruit Demons.
“Once the family get a real glimpse of how you rock wit me it’s all access granted be like a young Nicki Scarfo,” Gino wrote on Dec. 23, 2018, while referring to the infamous Philadelphia crime family boss.
About a week later, Gino wrote, “I am here to help you but I refuse to not be helped bak in all actuality you don’t [expletive] wit me or the set. I’m beefing with [racial slur] in Florida I don’t even know smh why are you even around.”
Some of the text messages introduced in court also mentioned a long list of rappers that included Karim “French Montana” Kharbouch, Jeffery “Young Thug” Williams, and LaRon “Juelz Santana” James.
Prosecutors accused Demons of killing his fellow YNW Collective rappers Christopher “Juvy” Thomas Jr., and Anthony “Sakchaser” Williams, on Oct. 26, 2018, in Broward. He is facing life in prison or the death penalty if convicted of two counts of premeditated first-degree murder.
WITNESS’S MASK
Broward County Circuit Judge John Murphy ordered Polo on Monday to remove a face mask that he had first allowed him to wear in court to protect his identity after receiving death threats.
Both a juror and Demons’s defense strongly objected to the detective’s use of a facemask during his testimony in court last week.
Murphy changed his mind after the defense argued that Polo and his family already had a public presence on CashApp, a mobile payment service that allows users to transfer money.
Polo said he wasn’t aware of it.
A grand jury indicted Demons on Feb. 7, 2019, and he surrendered on Feb. 13, 2019. Deputies have held Demons without bond for over four years.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE
The jury already saw surveillance video showing Demons, the two victims, and Cortlen “Bortlen” Henry getting into the backseat of a gray Jeep Compass outside of the New Era Recording Studio, at 805 NE 4th Ave., in Fort Lauderdale. Another video shows Henry at Memorial Miramar Hospital.
Thomas, 19, and Williams, 21, were dead inside the parked Jeep Compass, and Henry reported they had been the victims of a drive-by shooting on Miramar Parkway, but detectives didn’t find any evidence of a shooting there, according to Bradley.
Cell phone data showed them on Pines Boulevard and Pembroke Road, in a desolated area where detectives did find evidence of a shooting, according to Bradley. Detectives reported a bullet trajectory analysis showed the alleged right-to-left path of the bullets did not match the left-to-ring wounds.
Bradley said detectives concluded Demons shot and killed the two victims while they were all in the Jeep, and he and Henry staged the drive-by shooting. Bello said there was a shell casing from a .40 caliber gun inside the Jeep. The prosecution doesn’t have a gun.
RAPPER’S BACKGROUND
The defense claims Demons is innocent and only became a suspect when a Miramar detective realized that he was a rapper. The defense has accused the detective of mishandling the investigation and the evidence because he saw an opportunity in a high-profile case.
Demons grew up in Indian River County’s Gifford community and had an arrest record there and in Lee County, records show. He is in YouTube videos with the victims playing with what appears to be guns, cash, alcohol, and marijuana.
Demons became known as YNW Melly when he released his breakout song “Murder on My Mind” on SoundCloud and on YouTube in 2017. His golden single while later signed with 300 Entertainment made it onto the Billboard Hot 100.
YNW Melly partnered with Kanye West for “Mixed Personalities.” He released “Melly vs. Melvin,” his debut album, in 2019, and his second album “Just a Matter of Slime” — which features Lil Uzi Vert, Kodak Black, and Lil Baby — in 2021.
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