FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – During the first week of Florida rapper YNW Melly’s trial for the 2018 murders of two fellow YNW Collective rappers, circumstantial evidence took center stage.
Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley argued the evidence will help the jury conclude that Jamell “Melly” Demons killed Christopher “Juvy” Thomas Jr., and Anthony “Sakchaser” Williams on Oct. 26, 2018, in Broward County.
Recommended Videos
“I did that. Shhh,” Demons wrote in a private message about the murders, according to Bradley, who said the case evidence includes communication records from Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat.
Demons, 24, could face the death penalty if convicted. Defense Attorney David Howard argued there wasn’t DNA or a gun connecting Demons to the murders of his beloved childhood friends Thomas, 19, and Williams, 21.
“They have no motive,” Howard told the jury during his opening statement on Monday.
ALLEGED GANG ASSOCIATION
The prosecution claims Demons was a member of the G-Shine Bloods set, and he was learning the street gang’s oath of loyalty on Oct. 24, 2018, two days before the murders.
“This is not his stage personality. This is not an actor that is playing a character. This was his real life,” Bradley told the jury.
The prosecution claims Demons is seen showing, or “stacking,” gang signs with his hands in photos and videos. Also, since the gang’s rival is the Crips, Bradley said Demons’s spelling on his personal messages was “indicative” of his membership.
“Any time a word would normally be spelled with a ‘C’ as in Charlie, they don’t use that. They replace it with the letter ‘B,’ so instead of saying, ‘I am at the crib,” they say, ‘I am at the brib.’ Why ladies and gentlemen? Because ‘C’ is associated with Crips, ‘B’ is for Bloods,” Bradley told the jury.
CELL PHONE EVIDENCE
The prosecution showed the jury surveillance video of Demons “playing” with a cell phone, as he walked away from the New Era Recording Studio, and got into the driver’s side back passenger seat of a gray Jeep Compass in Fort Lauderdale.
“They are on the exact same cell phone plan,” Bradley said about the victims’ “reliable” cell phone tracking data that she said placed them at Miramar Parkway, Pines Boulevard, and a desolated area on Pembroke Road.
The two victims also got in the Jeep. Bradley said the drive-by was staged shortly after 4 a.m., at “the edge of the Everglades,” when the victims were already dead. She also said an autopsy report shows the victims had suffered post-mortem bullet wounds.
Bradley said cell phone records show Demons was with the two victims up to 15 minutes before Cortlen “Bortlen” Henry, the driver of the Jeep, arrived at Memorial Miramar Hospital with the two bodies.
“Their entire case is hinged upon the technology of a phone they claim to have been in Mr. Demons’s possession,” Howard said. “What they fail to tell you is that they have come across evidence that Mr. Demons got out of that car before this incident.”
Howard also told the jury that the prosecution ignores that because it’s not consistent with “their theory.” He also said the prosecution isn’t able to prove that the cell phone records are connected to Demons.
“That phone comes back to the name of somebody other than Jamell Demons ... Their own witness will tell you that ‘Yes, that phone and Mr. Williams’s phone and a number of other phones were all on the same account, and all of the people in the house used to use them interchangeably,” Howard told the jury.
Bradley said messages show Demons identified the phone number as his several times.
Related story: Experts testify on evidence of 2 murders in Broward
JURORS WATCH VIDEOS
Surveillance video shows Demons was in the Jeep’s back seat, on the driver’s side, when the four left the recording studio, according to Bradley.
The medical examiner’s autopsy report showed the bullets that caused the victims’ fatal wounds were coming from inside the Jeep’s back seat, Bradley said.
The jury watched a video showing a detective asking Henry if he was lying about his report that they had been the victims of a drive-by shooting on Miramar Parkway, between 160 and 172 avenues.
Detectives didn’t find any evidence of a shooting there.
“The lack of evidence is very important,” Bradley said about the detectives’ search for shell casings, glass fragments, or projectiles.
In Pembroke Road, in the desolated area, Bradley said detectives found shell casings. She said there was also a spent shell casing inside the car.
CASE STATUS
Demons surrendered to face two counts of premeditated murder on Feb. 13, 2019, and a judge denied him bond. Henry is on house arrest.
Over four years later, Demons and Henry maintain their innocence. Prosecutors are handling their cases separately. Demons’s trial is first.
Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy, who is presiding over Demons’s case, had yet to announce his decision about the defense’s motion for mistrial. The court is in recess until 9 a.m., on Tuesday.
Related story: Defense moves for a mistrial alleging ‘prejudicial fiasco’
RAPPING CAREER
Demons grew up in Indian River County’s Gifford community and had an arrest record there and in Lee County. He said in interviews that his experiences as a juvenile defendant and convict fueled his lyrics.
Demons released his breakout song “Murder on My Mind” on SoundCloud and on YouTube in 2017. His golden single made it onto the Billboard Hot 100, and he partnered with Kanye West for “Mixed Personalities.”
YNW Melly released “Melly vs. Melvin,” his debut album, in 2019. “Just a Matter of Slime” — which features Lil Uzi Vert, Kodak Black, and Lil Baby — was his second album, released in 2021.
Demons has over six million subscribers on YouTube. He and the victims pose together in music videos playing with what appears to be guns, cash, alcohol, and marijuana.
Related story: Millionaire record executive Kevin Liles gets front row