YNW Melly’s double-murder trial began in Miami on Monday with the rapper’s attorney questioning the prosecutors’ lack of a motive for Melly, real name Jamell Demons, to kill fellow rappers Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas back in 2018.
“After four years of investigation, the state comes and says, ‘Hey, he killed two of his best friends.’ And you’re wondering why, and their answer is, ‘Uh, I dunno.’ That’s the first indication that they’re just guessing and don’t know what they’re talking about,” Melly’s attorney David Howard argued in court, per Miami New Times. He described the prosecution’s investigation as “incompetent and incomplete.”
Demons currently faces two first-degree murder charges for the October 2018 killings of Williams and Thomas, both among Melly’s “best friends,” per his attorney. According to a statement from the Miramar police at the time of the killings, Demons and co-defendant Cortlen Henry conspired to make it seem like Williams and Thomas Jr. were killed during a drive-by shooting. (Demons pleaded not guilty.)
Prosecutors presented charges in 2019, citing blood splatter evidence, phone data, and a bullet casing in a car Melly was in as evidence to present the murder charges. Prosecutor Kristine Bradley told the jury Monday that there was a “lack of evidence” to prove Melly’s claim by his attorneys that a drive-by shooting led to the two men’s deaths.
“The detectives from Miramar … shut down the entire length of Miramar Parkway from 160th to 172nd. They walk side-by-side for an hour, that mile-long stretch, looking for evidence of this drive-by … In this case, the lack of evidence is very important,” Bradley said, per MNT. “There is a lack of any evidence whatsoever to support that a drive-by happened on Miramar Parkway.”
The first day of trial saw the prosecution call up witnesses, including police officers and hospital workers, to set the timeline for the night of the shooting, according to Pitchfork.
At the time of the killings, Demons’ lawyer Bradford Cohen said Melly was “sad” and “upset” about the deaths of his two best friends. Melly came to prominence off the success of singles including “Murder on My Mind” and “Slang That Iron” in 2018. His growing audience on YouTube and SoundCloud notched him cosigns from Future and Young Thug at the time.
Melly’s attorney and the prosecutor did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
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