FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Miramar police detective testified for a third day on Wednesday during the trial of Florida rapper YNW Melly for the murders of two of his fellow YNW Collective rappers over four years ago.
Detective Mark Moretti, the prosecution’s last witness, accused Jamell “Melly” Demons of fatally shooting Christopher “Juvy” Thomas Jr. and Anthony “Sakchaser” Williams on Oct. 26, 2018, in Broward County.
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The prosecution asked Moretti to continue to read a record of Demons’s messages while exposing some of the rapper’s disrespectful disagreements with his mother, Jamie King, whom he referred to as “Brazy Lady.”
“We ask that the court put a stop to this,” said Attorney David Howard, who is representing Demons.
Howard asked Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy to exclude some of the messages, and he accused the prosecution of presenting “inadmissible” evidence to the jury because of a lack of authentication.
“This is not outside of the scope of the jurors’ ability to understand,” Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley said.
Howard said the jury didn’t know anything about the reliability of the technology used to determine a cell phone’s location. Bradley told Murphy that the tech has been in use since 1967.
“Horoscopes have been around for a while, a lot of people think they are reliable, but it doesn’t mean they are admissible,” Howard told Murphy in court.
The defense also had an objection to Demons’s messages about a gun, and Murphy agreed and sustained the objection, so the prosecution could not show these to the jury.
Howard told Murphy that Bradley had introduced the inflammatory messages to the jury even though these were irrelevant, unrelated, and prejudicial. The defense also accused Moretti of botching an investigation that he continued even during jury selection over four years later.
The prosecution’s case centered on surveillance video before the murder showing Demons, then 19, Thomas, 19, and Williams, 21, left a recording studio in Fort Lauderdale together in a Jeep Compass that Cortlen “Bortlen” Henry was driving.
Later at Memorial Hospital in Miramar, surveillance video shows Henry before he reported that he and his friends had been the victims of a drive-by shooting on Miramar Parkway. Prosecutors said Henry arrived in the Jeep Compass with Thomas and Williams dead.
“We didn’t find any shell casings,” Moretti said in court on Monday about his search for evidence of a shoot on Miramar Parkway. “We didn’t find any shards of glass.”
Moretti said cell phone records later pointed to an area near the intersection of U.S. 27 and Pembroke Road where they did find evidence of a shooting.
“It a very desolate place,” Moretti said adding, the west side of U.S. 27 is a canal.
A grand jury indicted Demons on Feb. 7, 2019, and he surrendered to Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies on Feb. 13, 2019. He pleaded not guilty to two counts of premeditated first-degree murder.
Deputies had held him without bond for over four years when opening statements started on June 12. If convicted, Demons faces the possibility of life in prison without parole or the death penalty under the new state law that no longer requires unanimous agreement.
Henry is facing two counts of premeditated first-degree murder and two counts of accessory after the fact. He appeared in court on June 30 and his trial is set to start in October.
Demons first released “Murder on My Mind” on SoundCloud in 2017, and 300 Entertainment released it as a single on June 2018. The golden single later peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 and his albums “Melly vs. Melvin” and “Just a Matter of Slime” followed.
Assistant State Attorney Camille Smith stepped in for Bradley after she complained of voice loss. Murphy ended day 14 of the trial early and said the court was in recess until 9 a.m., on Monday.
INTERACTIVE GRAPHIC
TRIAL TIMELINE
The first week of trial: Opening statements were on June 12
The second week of trial: Prosecution’s witnesses continue to testify
The third week of trial: Testimony continues
The court is in recess
The fourth week of the trial: Testimony continues