FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Jury selection is continuing in the retrial of rapper YNW Melly, who is accused of killing two of his childhood friends in 2018. On Thursday, the court took a pause for more motions — the biggest one is by the defense to get a new deposition from the lead detective in the case.
Judge John Murphy already removed the original prosecutor on the case because of questions raised about her personal attachment to the outcome of the trial.
Those questions arrived from concerns about how the state attorney’s office handled notifying the defense about an investigation into detective Mark Moretti, who was accused by another assistant state attorney of speaking with a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy about lying to say he was with Moretti to serve a search warrant on Melly’s mother’s phone.
Now, the defense wants to bring Moretti back in for a new deposition to ask him exactly what happened during that conversation. However, the state argues that those questions have already been answered.
“I don’t know what would show more corruption than an officer serving a search warrant when he knew he was out of his jurisdiction, physically taking something from someone which he did not have a right to do because he was outside of his jurisdiction and then asking another officer to commit perjury,” said Daniel Aaronson, Melly’s attorney.
Assistant State Attorney Justin Griffs said: “At this point, there is no investigation. He has effectively been cleared by the Miramar Police Department. And what they now want to do is pontificate or speculate that maybe some charges will come down the road, but there’s just simply no evidence supporting that.”
But Aaronson told the judge: “Your honor, we simply want to take the deposition of Detective Moretti. Something was said that indicated to Deputy (inaudible) that he should lie or he was willing to lie and perjure himself and say he was there when the warrant was served.”
The judge has not made a final decision on whether or not there will be a new deposition from Moretti.
Melly, whose real name is Jamell Maurice Demons, faces a possible death sentence if convicted of first-degree murder in the 2018 slayings of Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas and Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams. Their stage names all include “YNW” because they belonged to the same hip-hop collective. It stands for “Young New Wave” or another phrase that includes a racial slur.
Prosecutors say Melly, after a late-night recording session, shot Thomas and Williams inside an SUV and he and Cortlen “YNW Bortlen” Henry then tried to make it look like a drive-by shooting.
The first trial last summer ended in a hung jury.