Law&Crime Sidebar - 5 Shocking Texts Revealed in YNW Melly’s Double Murder Trial

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

A series of text messages allegedly sent by YNW Melly, born Jamell Demons, were presented in the rapper’s double murder trial. The prosecution alleges these messages link Melly to the “Bloods” gang and were sent from a phone they claim was near the victims’ phones that night of the killings. Melly stands accused of gunning down two of his friends and staging the murders as a drive-by shooting. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy breaks down the five most shocking text messages revealed in the trial so far with retired FBI agent Bobby Chacon.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at http://bit.ly/3IGNFxvLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergWriting & Video Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa Bein & Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaDevil In The DormThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wonderly Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wonderly Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. He then asks his mother to buy him a gloss ASAP and telling her, like, go now. So she then responds, okay, what's wrong? The jury in YNW. Melly's double murder trial hears testimony about text messages talking guns and gangs. We look at five of the most shocking from a detective's testimony. I've covered a lot of crime stories over the years, many of them here at law and crime, and it really gets me thinking about how we can all stay safe. Well, this is palm pepper spray,

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You can talk to someone, obviously, and learn a lot about them. But if you look through their cell phone, you'll find out a lot more about what's going on in their life. The jury in YNW Melly's murder trial has seen a lot over the last few days about what was going on with Mellie before and after the murder of two of his friends. The state says the phone, labeled young Sack Chaser, belonged to Melly. The defense has questioned whether Melly always had possession of that phone. Melly, whose legal name is Jemel Demons, faces two counts of first-degree murder for the October 2018 shooting deaths of his two lifelong friends. YNW members Chris Thomas Jr. and Anthony Williams. They went by YNW Juv V and YNW Sack Chaser. A co-conspirator, Cortland Henry, will be tried separately. Melly faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted

under a new lower threshold of an 8 to 4 vote that used to have to be unanimous. Joining me to discuss these text messages is somebody who has experience with gangs. He worked in the FBI for many years has experience in investigating and surveilling gangs. He's Bobby Chacon. He's also a lawyer. Bobby, welcome back to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Great to be back with you. Thanks. Bobby, some of these text messages, these are things that maybe just average people aren't used to hearing about. One of the text messages that I found particularly interesting between Y&W. Melly and his mother was one right after the homicides were occurred back in 2018. And he's actually asking his mother to get.

a gun for him. So let's take a listen. Jamie King is sending a text message to her son. Send me your location. I'm in Stewart. I love you so much. He then sends a return the location showing at or about the time of the crime as to who was using and doing that. Okay. Love you again from Jamie King. I'm at your gate. I'm going to get the trash. The next response is bring Mariah, which you've honored already heard testimony, that Felicia Holmes, her daughter, Mariah Hamilton, was in a dating relationship with this defendant, and that at this time, and that there was conversations and that she has identified Mariah as Maria Hamilton. Then there is okay. And it continues. He then asked his mother to buy him a gloss ASAP and telling him.

and telling her, like, go now. So she then responds, okay, what's wrong? She says, I got your 45. Then his response, I just don't want no illegal gun. Well, that's not illegal. Okay, Bobby. So what I find so interesting about this, there are a couple of things going on here.

First, the defense has tried to argue in this case that, oh, this, you don't know if this is Mellie's phone. This is not Melly's phone. Well, clearly he's talking to his mother, talking about bringing his girlfriend, Mariah, to him. And he's asking his mother to purchase him a gun after the homicides, right after the homicides occurred. So the state, I think, is trying to say here, look, this is somebody who's looking for a gun right after the homicides when he tried to purchase a gun before the homicides as well. The murder weapon has never been located. So do you see where the state's going with this?

Sure. Well, first of all, earlier in testimony, you had literally screenshots from some of the FaceTime videos of you can see the person holding the phone and you can see it's him. So the defendant. And so it literally put the phone in this defendant's hand. So it's harder for them now to say that's not his phone. When you've got like one of these selfie screenshots of the person on a FaceTime call, holding that phone. So I think the state really did well to establish that. And now, you know,

he would say, well, isn't it weird that he's looking for a gun after the murders? But no, not, you know, not if you consider once they do a murder, you want to get rid of that particular gun that you use in the murder that might be linked ballistically. So you get rid of that one, but because you carried out the murder, there might be some retribution. So you want to get another gun to protect yourself. So I think it makes perfect sense. And whereas his communication via text with other gang members is much more coded with his mom who may not understand their particular language, code language. It's clear, I need a Glock. Everybody knows what a Glock is. It's a brand of weapon. A 45 is a very common and very deadly caliber of a Glock. This is actually pretty clear

what's happening here. Yeah, it seems pretty clear to me. It's right after the homicides and he's saying, Mom, I need a gun. Well, let's look at a clip before the homicides. Okay. Okay, this is a couple of weeks, almost two weeks before the homicides, where he is asking, Melly is asking somebody for a gun and he's looking for a gun before the homicides. So you would think that if he's looking for one before the homicides, maybe he got that gun, he had that gun, but then after the homicides, he needs another gun. So let's look at this clip where he's asking one of his friends to figure out how to get him a gun. States in North Carolina getting ready for this show.

Obviously, he's taken up the C in North Carolina, replacing it with a big B lights. And then the response from the 50-54 bang number. Oh, I'm about to, I'm about to head to Goddy's concert at SQL. I was just checking in on you blood. on page 17 October 14th of 2018 can you read that one and explain what it's meaning 9807 number asks you know someone selling a glizzy's a slang term for a Glock the next page on page 18. What is the 9807 asking at, again, October 14th, 2018? He again asks, without putting a question mark, but any gun, basically saying I'll take any gun.

Okay. So, Bobby, we have text messages after the homicides asking about a Glock. We have text messages before the homicides asking for a Glock. We know that there were 40 caliber, at least a 40 caliber, shell casing found in this homicide investigation. We don't have the actual murder weapon. But we do have Melly discussing blocks, guns that are similar to ones that could have been used in the homicides. Sure. And why would he have to ask his mother shortly after the homicide if he already just obtained a weapon shortly before the homicide. The reason is once you commit the homicide with that weapon, you want to get rid of it. You don't want to keep a gun that could ballistically tie you to the murder. So you get rid of that gun. However, carrying out a murder sometimes brings

attention to you, bad attention from other gang members, because remember, this was a gang on gang. It's the same gang internally. So there might be other people loyal to the victims that might come after you. So you want to get rid of the gun that you committed a homicide with because of ballistics. And then you want to get another gun to protect yourself from anybody or any friends of the victims that might come back after you. So all of this is like the prosecution just walking the jury through the story in the defendant's own words. How valuable are cell phones and text messages and investigations? Because I often say that if you really want to know what's going on with somebody and in their life,

don't talk to them and say, hey, how's it going? You need to look in their cell phone. The cell phone kind of tells all. Yeah, it's funny. I've been watching this case as it goes on. And I'm from a generation ago. So when I was investigating it, I did Jamaican gangs in New York City for 10 years. And there was no cell phones.

You know, we had to have bugs in their cars, bugs in their stores, and their storefronts in their houses. We have to listen to their conversations. And now everything has changed. The young people today don't even phone call. They're not even comfortable talking on the phone, not because they're afraid of getting bugged,

but they've been raised on text messages. They've been raised on social media. So everything is through these avenues, through the text and through the social media. They don't even like to talk to each other. They prefer text, which is totally opposite of me and my generation. where I would prefer to talk to somebody either face-to-face or on video or on the phone.

I want to hear your voice because so much gets lost in translation on text, at least for me. And so the phone is all important for this generation. It's all important for younger people. They live their lives on these phones. They live their lives out through texts. And unlike a voice conversation that's not recorded, you know, if I didn't have a bug up on somebody's phone, that's lost forever. I mean, you might have the duration of the call and the two.

two numbers that called, but you'd never know what transpired between those two phones. Now with text, it's there forever, no matter how much encryption and how much they want to delete and stuff. And so what you're seeing is these cell phones are the treasure trove of evidence of what was happening with two people or three people or a gang internally to the gang. I mean, they're all important. You have to get up on their cell phones. You have to know what's happening. And they put it all out there. It's all out there. I mean, sometimes they think text to text is more private. But even look at the social media in this case, all the information that they're putting out onto the public social media avenues that the prosecution is bringing in

to this case. They live their lives in the open like this. It's a much different generation than the gangsters that I was going after in the 80s and 90s. Let's look at this next clip, Bobby. And what I think is interesting about this next clip is the fact that after the homicides and Mellie says he didn't do this. He says they were the victims of a drive-by, his friend Bortland, Cortland Henry, the driver. Oh, this was a drive-by. State says it's all a lie that they use the drive-by story as a cover-up. He is messaging this Fredo Bangs. He had sent him like a pin with his location to come pick him up. And Frato Bangs then responds to him. So they have this conversation about coming to get him after the homicides were committed, but really just

after. So let's take a look. Page 20. 3220 Southwest 192nd Avenue, Miramar, Florida, 33029. I'm on my way right now, buddy. I'm going on to the 98-07 messages on October 26, 2018, 4-11 and 44619. What does the 9807 number say at that point? On this one?

Yes. All right, bro. Ain't nobody picking up. And then the next one? Shit brazy. A.F.S. Fuck. Right now. Blood, what the fuck? Okay.

And in response to that, what does the number identified as bang 50-54 say? Bang responds. I'm on my way. Blood, I got you. Okay. and in terms of the locations or anything like that you did not analyze any of that data no going on to october 27th the 2018 322 a.m what does that say you good blood and that's coming from which individual pre-o-banon okay the again the 9807 phone number at this point says on October 27 2018 325 a.m

A response? Hell yeah. Appreciate everything, but I love you. Okay, so Fredo Bangs is the one that came and picked Melly up after the homicides. What I find interesting about this is that, you know, Fredo Bangs, he gives this address of Miramar to come pick him up. Or, you know, he obviously got the pin or whatever. And Mellie had sent him a couple of pins. But, you know, the state's saying these homicides didn't occur on Miramar.

These homicides occurred, you know, in this other location and that Mellie had sent two pins. So there's obviously this whole back and forth about like, hey, blood, you know, I got you blood, this, that, and the other. So they're talking like in this language, I'm assuming that the prosecution and Danny Polo, the state's expert, are saying, hey, you know, these are gang members talking to each other. So what do you make of this series of text messages and why the state may be showing these, Bobby? Well, because you had four people in that car, allegedly, and three only showed up at the emergency room, right? The one guy runs into the emergency room, we saw that on video, and the two ultimately deceased people are in the car right outside, and the defendant is not there. And so, you know, you piece it together. Again, it's telling the story.

Where's the defendant? Well, the defendant's over here. He got out of that car somehow at some point after the homicides, and he had somebody else pick him up. That's why he's not at the emergency room. That's why there's only three people out of the four that the government alleges was in that car when the shooting happened. And of course, they have evidence that some of the shots may have come from inside the car. And why was the driver who ran into the emergency room totally unscathed and the other two were all shot up? And somehow he escaped without any injury, without a scratch on him.

And when he's in a car with his hail of bullets supposedly coming at them from the outside from this alleged drive-by and killing the other two people in the car. but he's in that same car totally unscathed. So, I mean, it's telling the story, and this particular exchange explains why Melly, the defendant, is the fourth person, that car is not in the car, I think, when they get to the emergency room and the two people, the two victims die at the hospital and why they're only three people. You know, here's where he is. They're explaining to the jury, he got out of that car, and he made a phone call to us

have somebody come and pick them up. And if you're the victim, if you're, you know, you know, You know, the victim of a drive-by. And your two best friends from childhood, you've just witnessed them, one sitting next you, one sitting up front from you. You're literally witnessing them be murdered, right? In a drive-by, first of all, Bobby, how likely is it that two people in a car during a drive-by can escape unscathed?

Cortland-Bortland-Henry shows up at the emergency room, not a drop of blood on him, not a scratch on them. So how likely is that? Because I would think even if the bullets are coming in that side of the car, you're still going to, A, have blood all over you. And B, it doesn't matter if there's two other people in the car. They may get hit, but you're still probably going to get hit. Of course. And then you saw the pictures of that car with all those bullet holes, not only in the side of the car, what you don't see because the windows are shot out is there were bullets flying through those windows as well, because the glass would go everywhere. And glass traveling at that high rate of speed is going to impact you and cut you up. And so you'll, you'd have broken glass

all over you embedded in your face, at least, because remember, our faces are up higher, right? The glass is flying at that level. It's impossible to think that all of those bullets and all of that flying glass would leave you totally unscathed if you're in that same vehicle as these two victims. I mean, they were shot up really well. A lot of bullets, a lot of glass, a lot of blood, and he comes out of that car without a scratch on him without an ounce of blood on him. You know, he didn't try to help, you know, a lot of times when you try to save somebody, when they shut up the blood, actually transfers to you, you'd have that blood on you as well. And then that combined with the fact that the state is alleging that they have evidence that some of the bullets was shot from inside the car.

Casings might have been found in the car. So, yeah, it's really, it's a real tough sell, especially, you know, the police did photograph the other co-defendant in this case, not on trial here. but the other co-defendant, you know, they photographed them pretty extensively at the emergency room and you can see he doesn't have a scratch on him. Yeah. And I think that would be highly unlikely. I mean, if your friends are getting shot up in a car next to you

and you're driving the car, you're still going to say you don't get hit, you're going to have blood on you. I mean, I find that highly unlikely. Yeah, you'd have blood and scratches and everything. Yeah, you'd have blood and glass and scratches. Yeah, yeah. It's impossible for me to believe anybody else was in that car.

having looked at those photographs and come out of that car in the condition of the person, the photographs of the co-defendant that the police took at the hospital. It's really a hard sell for me to believe that. Now, the defense in this case obviously says Mellie didn't do this, that he wasn't in the car at the time that this happened, you know, and they're actually casting some doubt or attempting to cast some doubt on the state's claim that he was part of the G-Shine blood sense. you know, that he was part of this group. I mean, a lot of this back and forth sounds like he very much was a part of it.

You know, they talk about, you know, dropping the C's and using a B instead, like brazy for crazy, you know, bribe instead of crib, things like that. So it does appear that way if we are to believe the state's expert. But there's something that happens after the homicides. And this was an interesting clip, I thought, where he and this guy, Gino, are talking about, you know, something to do that could show the world, I guess, or to show people like who Melly is a part of. So let's take a listen to that. There's a message from, again, the genome to the 9807 phone number. If you could read that message aloud.

Are you a Ruru? I was thinking you should drop a few chains and give them to you. the gang that will show people who you connected with it's not mandatory just thought okay the response not everybody of course is there a like dues or tithing that's required as for membership in the criminal gang yeah as described in the oath and many times throughout the Bible it's not about the individual about the collective the mere fact that he wasn't even communicating with Gino and with his lineup enough, that was enough for them to say, you're not doing it enough for us. And now, to step further, we need to be brought to these shows, and you should buy us some jewelry.

Because that jewelry's not cheap. Okay, so then the next message from December 12th is, says you're in, the position to be a young Don. What is a young Don? Higher up a captain. Okay. Is that one of the ranks? They didn't reference that name as a,

as in their Bible as what they call it their ranks. So I think it's just like a term related to the mafia, Dawn. Okay. And the response from the 98-07 phone number is, Let's do it. Okay. Okay. So basically, Melly's on board, according to the state, you know, and according to these texts.

Like, he's on board with the jewelry and the whole nine yards. So his defense will say, oh, this is all after the homicides, you know, it's much ado about nothing. But your take. Well, it's actually showing that he's getting guidance on how to behave in the gang. How to become a better gang member, drop some chains. some chains. In other words, you know, bring some expensive jewelry around and pass it around to the bosses, to the higher-ups. You know, this will show them your loyalty to the group, because as the detective testified in their Bible and their oath, it's all about the collective. It's all about the group. So you should come and you should drop some chains, which is you should bring some, you know, expensive jewelry and spread it around among the bosses to let them know that you're on board.

And then he goes on to say, you could be a young Don, Don and caps. I mean, you know, we all know from the old godfather, aren't the Italian Mafia? Don Corleone. Marlon Brando was Don Corleone. Don is a term that the Italian Mafia started as one of the kind of a boss kind of figure, but has now made it to kind of popular culture. And Don is something. So you can be a young Don, I mean, you can be a young leader in this group if you behave this way. So he's actually being groomed. He's actually being taught how to ascend himself, how to conduct himself, and how to raise a young leader. his profile within the gang. That's what all that's about. You can be a young Don, drop some chains, you know, and so he's being kind of tutored in how to, you know, because he's got this rap group going and he's got some notoriety. He can be a young Don in this group if he behaves as this person is guiding him along to behave.

I was going to say, using the term Don, that's really getting into your language there with the New York Mafia type stuff, you know, because it makes me think of like John Gotti and, you know, the Gambino crime family, the Godfather, everything you're saying. And these are all, you know, whether it's the mafia or so-called, you know, gangs, they're all kind of the same thing.

You know, just different cultural aspects of it is what goes on. It's all organized crime. All right, let's take a look at this next clip. This is Melly showing gang signs according to the prosecution. What are we looking at here? That's a really commonly used blood hands on,

spelled out blood, B-L-O-T, using both hands. And in terms of this immature, we look. looking at in this image? Mr. Demons, using both hands to throw up the big, big bees from the Ludden. And is this the same jacket from the previous photo? Yes. Okay. At least there appears to be.

There's a lot more than hidden. Moving on to the next image here. What is shown in this photo? Mr. Demons, putting the big B up to his forehead. all right bobby so what do you think of that well this is another you know another piece to the puzzle where like clearly he's either wanting to be in that gang or he's in the gang trying to impress people he's putting these public pictures out of him flashing very specific gang signs right um very specific to this gang and it's not something that's taken lightly by the gang if you're a public figure

in that world and you're on social media flashing these signs and and you don't don't have credibility in the gang or you're not in the gang, you know, harm could come to you. I mean, the gang could come after you simply for making these types of claims publicly on your Facebook page, on your Instagram page, whatever social media, particularly if you're somebody, you know, like this, a burgeoning rapper, you know, who has some notoriety out there in the public. They don't want you flashing their signs unless you're really part of them. And so there could be some kind of, you know, negative consequence to you doing that. So him flashing these signs, I think, is, again, one of those behaviors that he's being told, you know, if you want

to be one of us, you know, you use this platform you have, this growing notoriety through the music world to, to be proud of your membership and us and tell everyone about it and stuff. And I think, you know, this is clearly showing, you know, this isn't just like a peace sign. These are very specific gang signs. You hear this expert. This is why we have, you know, gang intelligence units that track all these things, tattoos, hand signs, clothing, all of this stuff means something. And these gang intelligence officers really do a great job at knowing because it's constantly changing this stuff. It gives context to a photograph that might otherwise, you might not know anything about what's going on in the photograph. But through clothing and through these hand

signs, it gives context to what's happening in these photos. you know the defense will say that Melly was not in a gang you know they're going to they're going to assert that I mean they are asserting that and they're cross-examining obviously Danny Polo the state's expert but you know the state is obviously laying out that look he killed his friends he was doing these loyalty oaths to the bloods but if his friends you know the defense is like he wouldn't kill his best friends they've been in his best friends since they were kids you know this is ridiculous you have no motive here why would he kill his friends if they are allegedly in the bloods as well. Well, look, drawing it back to my days in the Italian Mafia, it was almost always a friend of yours that was called upon to kill you, you know, in the Goodfellers movie. I mean, it's somebody that you trust. They always say it's somebody that you trust

that's going to put the bullet in the back of your head because that's going to be the person that's able to lure you to a spot where you're vulnerable. If there's a stranger coming at you, you're going to be a lot more on guard. So oftentimes in these gangs, certainly in the Italian mafia, and in some of the gangs I worked, you know, it was a friend that was tasked with taking you out. Once they decided you have to go, it was usually somebody close to you because that's who can lure you, lower your guard, and lure you to a place where you're going to be vulnerable and

they're going to be able to kill you. So that's the argument that, oh, you would never kill a friend. That's long been blown out of the water and dispelled in both the mafia and in gangs. In fact, the mafia has always said it's almost always going to. to be someone close to you that puts the bullet in the back of your head. Very interesting. Well, Bobby Chacon, thanks as always for your time and your expertise. We appreciate you coming on.

Always enjoy your time with you. Thanks. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime Sidebar Podcast. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Jeanette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.