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The trial of YNW Melly, a South Florida rapper accused of killing his two friends and aspiring rap artists YNW Juvy & YNW SakChaser in 2018, began on Monday, June 13, 2023. YNW Melly, whose birth name is Jamell Demons, is facing two first-degree murder charges on the October 26, 2018, killings of 21-year-old Anthony Williams, aka YNW SakChaser, and 19-year-old Christopher Thomas, aka YNW Juvy.
During the opening statements of the trial, YNW Melly’s defense attorney David Howard ripped into the prosecution’s case, questioning the lack of motive in the shooting.
Describing the investigation into the case as “incompetent and incomplete”, Howard argued that there was no reason for his client to kill his two best friends.
“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.”
YNW Melly's attorney claims Robert Cobert allegedly admitted to the 2018 killings on an Instagram post
During the first day of the YNW Melly murder trial, his attorney also revealed that a man, named Robert Cobert, admitted to the murders on Instagram soon after their deaths. Howard said that an Instagram account that belonged to a user named Robert Cobert posted a message shortly after Melly’s friends' death saying:
“Lol we killed two of your (friends).”
Howard then went on to allege that when the authorities questioned Robert Cobert seven months after the incident, Cobert allegedly told investigators that he sold the Instagram account for $20 before the shootings and could not recall to whom.
Howard told the jury that the prosecution's case was based on guesswork and had failed to disclose a motive for the killing, thus establishing reasonable doubt in the case.
Prosecutors present video evidence that shows YNW Melly hopping into the car where his friends were killed
However, during Monday’s trial, prosecutors told the jury that YNW Melly deceived investigators by lying about his friend’s being fatally shot in a drive-by shooting. Prosecutors presented witnesses, including detectives, who testified that at the time of the killings, Melly and co-defendant Cortlen Henry conspired to make it seem like victims were killed during a drive-by shooting.
In October 2018, YNW Melly’s friend, Cortlen Henry, showed up at a Miami area hospital claiming his friends were shot during a drive-by shooting. Henry told the hospital staff that the victims were bleeding out inside his car. The staff reportedly found the two victims dead after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds to the head and torso.
However, authorities who drove to the "crime scene" where Henry alleged that the victims were shot said that there was no evidence in the area to suggest there was a shooting.
During the trial, prosecutors presented surveillance footage that showed Melly getting inside the car alongside the victims on the night of the killings. They also presented texts from Melly to a friend shortly after the murder where he wrote, “I did that shh.”
If convicted, Melly will potentially be sentenced to death after the Florida court ruled that prosecutors can seek the punishment in November 2023.
