Law&Crime Sidebar - 8 Key Moments From Closings in YNW Melly Double Murder Trial

Episode Date: July 22, 2023

With a potential verdict on the horizon, the Law&Crime Network's Jesse Weber looks at some of the highlights from the prosecution and defense battling it out in closing arguments in the YNW Melly double murder trial.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at https://bit.ly/3rkw6gnLAW&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 JunkieThey 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.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry 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. This investigation went on five years. The only person every piece of evidence points to is this defendant. The jolly green giant or the midget was a shooter in this case. They would either be closer to the car or further from the car, depending upon their size. With a potential verdict on the horizon, we look at some of the highlights from the prosecution and defense battling it out in closing arguments in the YNW Mellie murder trial. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime.

I'm Jesse Weber. Well, folks, we have come to the end of YNW Melly's double murder trial out of Broward County, Florida. The murder on my mind rapper, whose real name is Jamel Demens, is charged with the murders of his two friends and fellow YNW group rappers, Christopher Thomas Jr., or YNW Juvie, and Anthony Williams, or YNW sackjacer. The men were found shot to death on October 26, 2018, after Mellie's co-defendant, Cortland, also known as Y&W. Bortland, pulled up to the hospital with the bodies of Thomas and Williams in the car, claiming that they were all victims of a drive-by shooting. However, the evidence has suggested, or at least as the prosecution has suggested, this was a staged drive-by shooting and the shots actually came from inside the vehicle.

Prosecution even highlighted how the defendant was a member of a gang called the G-Shine Blood. We can't forget that there is a lot at stake here because the death penalty is on the table if Mellie is convicted. Not just that. The law changed in Florida. It used to be you needed a unanimous vote for the death penalty. Now the law is you only need an eight to four vote by the jury. So how will the jury decide? Well, at the time of this recording, they are still deliberating.

But we wanted to take the time to recap the last things that this jury heard in that courtroom. That is right, the closing arguments. And as I said before, closing arguments, they're not evidence. But this is the last attempt by the prosecution and the defense to persuade this jury that either Demens is guilty or not guilty. It's a way to summarize the evidence presented in court for each respective side. So let's highlight some of the major moments from closing arguments. We're going to start with the prosecution.

They go first. It's their case. It's their burden. And we heard from prosecutor Christine Bradley. sadly, she delivered the closing for the prosecution, and she started with arguably the most important evidence showing how the shooting happened inside the car. So then we have one of the things that Detective Williams relied upon was the shirt of Cortland Henry.

If you recall, there is a spot of blood on the front of the shirt. That blood, as Kurt Rhodes then told you, belongs to Anthony Williams. What does that tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that during the course of this shooting, Cortland Henry has his back against the driver's seat and is driving, wearing this shirt when the shooting occurs. You know from that that he is not the shooter. Why? Because if he was the shooter, the angle to get that wouldn't have the blood on the front of the shirt. It would have it coming across the driver's side.

and towards the side of the shirt, not the front. The entrance on Mr. Williams is back behind his left ear, and the exit is up here in his hair. So what do you know about Christopher Thomas' wound? That it's coming in at almost 90 degrees on the left side of his face, and that there is stippling. You learned about stippling. You learned from Sergeant Williams,

as well as from the medical examiners, that the firearm that inflicted that wound was approximately three inches to no more than three feet. We know it can the backseat passenger, it could have been, because there is different. Strike K comes in and hits the front of the rear door. That tells you that that door was open when that drive-by was staged.

Because as you heard from Sergeant Williams, if this was actually a drive-by, this what you would have seen. Stripes coming in at different angles, at obtuse angles, there were the angles of entry that would show either a pattern of speeding up or slowing down. But instead, you have them coming in at 90 degrees. The state has established that there was someone in that rear seat. Someone who is in that rear seat is the person who committed this murder. And who is that person that sat in that seat? Well, Bradley goes back to the infamous surveillance footage of Demons, Henry, Thomas, and Williams leaving the recording studio that night.

So we have the studio video. This is going to go through and you can track the defendant wearing that lyrical lemonade sweater all the way out to the Jeep. where he gets in the spot, the murderer, or seven. It's important to notice, ladies and gentlemen, that phone, always, always, always in his hand. And let's talk about that phone, because that was a crucial piece of evidence for the state. Mr. Demens, 772, 713, 9807. So we have here between 3.20 a.m. and 3.50. 7 a.m., 772, 713, 98,07, Mr. Demons' phone, and the 981, Mr. Williams' phone, are all tracking together.

So, ladies and gentlemen, you've learned that the phones of Mr. Demons and Mr. Williams travel in, from 3.20 a.m., in 40 minutes, all the way out to U.S. 27 in Humber Grove. On October 26th of 2018, Jameson-François' phone is out there in that same U.S. 27 in Pembroke Road location. And so is that to Mr. Demons. Very odd location to go to. Nothing out there, except evidence of a murder. And ladies, you don't know, you know. know the number of shell casings that were found in that scene. And you know that there's at least a through Q fired into the outside of that vehicle, not including the ones inside the vehicle

in terms of the number of shots that are fired. But they're going back there. So going back to Mr. Demons' phone at 4.40 a.m. Remember the timing. advance stands. So at this point, at 4.40 a.m., you also have seen the Memorial Miramar video. We're at 435, the Memorial Hospital is right here. At 435, five minutes earlier, Portland Henry drives the Grady into the hospital of the two deceased victims. Now, in other words, what the prosecution is arguing is that Demens was with the victims and his phone places him at key locations like that remote area where the stage shooting could have occurred. That's my understanding of that. Now, of course, the question is,

how do we know this is his phone? The defense argued that the phone is used by many people. They switch it off. Can't say for sure he was using it. Maybe somebody else was using it that day. Christine Bradley had an answer for that. Ladies and gentlemen, you have a confession in this case. So 4 p.m. 4 p.m. 4 p. I did that with the smile face. And that's what I said in opening. Context is key. And look at the messages between Mr. Demens and Mr. Gambino.

Gingbino is a blood gang member. He uses all those same information, slang words, changing up the letters that you learned about from Detective Polo. October 26th. he asked and reach out to see how the defendant's doing and the defendant says i did that it's a spelling that oh other times he uses d-at and jump and you saw the song where he has a song that he's released called t hatt in his phone yeah that instagram message right there after the killings that's big i did that and then followed up with a message shh and what brett

Bradley is referring to when she says that or that is the defense because they seemingly argued that maybe Demons didn't send that message because he usually uses that instead of that. But you heard Bradley's response. Finally, let's talk about a potential motive because the question is, why on earth would this man want to kill his two friends? Prosecution gave something for the jury to think about. Please, gentlemen, we've gone over the messages where you can see.

the animosity that there is some tension between Mr. Williams and Mr. Demons, where Mr. Williams is making it clear that, and I will fully agree, Mr. Demons was a talented musical artist. Anthony Williams had not had that level of success. Christopher Thomas didn't have that level of success. They don't have that opportunity because the defendant killed them. But the defendant was making money. He was the one that was the revenue source, the meal ticket in that house. Look at the messages, look at the tone of them.

Look who's asking for money. Look at the way they communicate. about things for the house, about food. And look at where Anthony Williams is saying, look, I'm the CEO. The others are artist. Anthony is saying, myself, Mr. Demons, Mr. Thomas, we're the CEOs.

But at that time, Mr. Demons is the only one who's actually putting in the work, who's doing anything, who's making the money, who's recording the songs. You have the chat with Frederick Gibbons. And that is the one in which the defendant asked to be picked up from the side of peppered road. That's that drop-pin that we talked about in relation to the cast records. That phone is being used by the person who committed the murder.

and they came with the only evidence before you, the only evidence is that the only person that used that phone was the defendant, Jamel Dennis. Now let's get into the defense's closing argument in the YNW Mellie double murder trial. And defense attorney Stuart Edelston first started by focusing on the problems in the investigation. On October 26th, that day of the shooting, we learned immediate. that that Jeep was taken to a secure area. And it was searched for over 15 hours. Because about three years later, miraculously,

even though it was searched for hours by crime scene technicians, Sergeant Williams comes into the scene at the request of the state of Florida, this particular prosecutor right here. And miraculously, he finds additional evidence. Additional evidence, two projectiles and a blood stain that obviously everyone else missed. That should tell you something about the quality of this investigation. You saw the pictures of the jeep all bloody, blood all over the place,

and we learned that you could spray and determine if there was blood right here on the carpet, even though you don't see it. Why in the heck don't you get a search? warrant for the house. Why in the heck, don't you? Don't tell us, we didn't know where he lived. Don't tell us it was months later because they go into the car four years later because they take, execute a search warrant on his house, his apartment, and his storage unit. They find ammunition in there. They find in the storage unit, I think, three holsters and gun locks.

We don't know what type of guns belong to those holsters. We don't know what type of guns were the gun locks two. All we know is there are three guns missing based upon the three holes. And Moretti doesn't even ask where these weapons are. What are these weapons? Should it concern you? Yes. Should it show you a lack of evidence?

Yes. ask yourself that keep telling you to use your common sense use your common sense please ask yourself why a lead detective of a double homicide would not ask James and Francois

where the hell are the guns they did absolutely nothing once they got that surveillance tape blinders, blinders on this. We're not going to look to the left. We're not going to look to the right. We're just going to direct everything to this young man. The main idea here is that this investigation was rushed. It wasn't thorough. And all police did was have tunnel vision and focus on YNW Melly. I might recall that in the opening statements delivered by the defense, they said that law enforcement went after Mellie because he was

a high-profile person. And the defense actually goes on to put more emphasis, not on Mellie, but someone else, Cortland Henry, and his role in all of this. We know that Cortland Henry's involved. We all know that, according to the state, Cortland Henry lied to the police. And we all. also know, as the investigation progressed, that Cortland Henry had blood matching the victim

on his clothes. And he also had G.S.R. or gunshot residue on his clothes. And remember, Cortland Henry is a co-defendant in this case. He's going to be tried separately. But then the defense focused on their sole witness. the only person that they called to the stand, Adrian Davis. We had to call Adrian Davis. And you learned that Adrian Davis showed up in the state attorney's office and gave a sworn statement. They never told you this.

We did. We don't have to do any of this. And Adrian Davis said. I told you he got in the car. How do I know that? Because I was woken up when someone was crawling in the back seat.

How do I know that? When we got to Mellie's house, he's the one who had to open the door. Because only he and Cortland Henry had the key to his house. Why do we have to do that? Why did they conceal that from you?

Why did they hide that from you? Now, that was a major point for the defense because Adrian Davis testified that everything seemed normal before the shooting. He was actually with all of them at the recording studio before the shooting took place. He said there were no fights, nothing like that. And then he said that Melly got into the Jeep that was leaving the recording studio. He went into a Mitzibishi. And at some point, he says Mellie left that Jeep and hopped the. to the Mitsubishi. He doesn't remember when because he was basically asleep. He was intoxicated

and that they were together when they found out that Thomas and Williams were killed. That's an alibi. And you can maybe understand why the defense only called one witness in this case, because if the jury believes that, then they say Melly wasn't in the Jeep when the shootings happened. And after the defense presented their closing argument, the prosecution had a quick rebuttal argument. Here's a sample. You've heard an hour and 10 minutes of speculation. Let's talk about Adrian Davis, AD. So why would counsel ask me, why I wouldn't call him?

That assumes the witness is credible. That assumes the witness is telling the truth. That assumes that Adrian Davis' testimony is consistent with every other sworn statement, deposition, and trial testimony in this case. If the witness is not credible and doesn't agree with any other piece of evidence

in the case I'm not going to call them. And there's no evidence whatsoever that supports this, oh, the phone was left in the car theater. There's none. Phones don't send messages and walk 1,300 steps by themselves.

There's no. whatsoever than anybody else got in that jeep. What the evidence does show, the defendant was consistently in that Jeep, and that jeep never stopped during that whole course of travel until it got to the edge of the Everglades. The edge of the Everglades, where there's no witnesses, where there's no cameras, where they can stage a crime scene to try and get away with her.

And there you have it. We will wait and see who the jury believes, and who they did not. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber.

I'll speak to you next time. app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.