Law&Crime Sidebar - Johnny Depp’s Lawyer Reacts to YNW Melly Double Murder Trial

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Rapper YNW Melly, born Jamell Demons, currently faces trial for allegedly killing two of his friends and staging the double murder as a drive-by shooting. The prosecution continues to present evidence against the rapper they claim proves he was the gunman. Famed Johnny Depp lawyer Ben Chew reacts to the case so far and discusses Melly’s behavior with the Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Go to https://buyraycon.com/law to get 15% off!LAW&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.

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You didn't see this young man does not at any time, correct? No, sir. A high-profile trial with a high-profile defendant. Who better to discuss the case of YNW Melly, then Johnny Depp's attorney, Ben Chew. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. All right, so we're back breaking down the latest in the YNW Melly murder trial.

This is, of course, the trial of the Florida rapper whose real name is Jamel Demons, and he's charged with the murder of two fellow YNW group rappers. This is Christopher Thomas Jr., or YNW Juvi, and also Anthony Williams or YNW sack chaser. These men were found shot to death on October 26, 2018, after Mellie's co-defendant, Cortland Henry, also known as YNW, Bortland, pulled up to a hospital with the bodies of Thomas and Williams in the car. But he claimed they were all the victims of a drive-by shooting. Just so happens, Henry had no injuries on him.

And when law enforcement took a second look and they looked a little bit closer at this, they saw this as a staged scene. say that Melly was the shooter, that he got out of the car before arriving to the hospital, and that he attempted to stage this as a drive-by shooting. They even highlighted how the defendant was a member of a gang called G-Shine Bloods, and maybe did this as a form of loyalty to the gang. I have something else I have to mention. This is a death penalty case, so if Mellie is convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

Now, the law in Florida has changed. normally it was always a unanimous vote by the jury to vote in favor of death the law has changed and now you only needed eight to four vote by the jury to vote in favor of death pretty incredible there and when we think about some of the most heated and the pivotal moments in this case i want to bring in a very special guest somebody who knows about high profile cases and high profile clients i'm joined right now by johnny dep's attorney ben chue ben good to see you thanks so much for coming back here on Sidebar. Thank you very much for having me, Jesse.

Thank you very much. And welcome back from your honeymoon. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things a little bit. But it feels, I would say it's like feeling like a glove, but it feels like a ring. You just put it back on. It's all easy.

Let me ask you this. I'll start with the, not a hard question. Who's winning this case? I know we're really at sort of the beginning. The prosecution's still putting on their case. They have a lot more to present. But so far, can you get a sense of whether or not the prosecution or the defense, is kind of taking the advantage here or winning.

Jesse, I think on balance the prosecution seems to have the upper hand. I know that the defense has poked a few holes in particular. They can't identify the murder weapon. But I do think the prosecution is putting forth a fairly solid case. What makes you think that? Because if you ask me, I think it's that surveillance footage, right? So there's this surveillance footage of YNW Melly leaving the recording studio. On the night of the murders, he gets into this car, this Jeep compass.

The two victims are in the car as well. And then prosecutors say that if you look at particularly the cell phone data, he's with them 15 minutes before Henry goes to the hospital with the victims in the car. So that's for me, and by the way, there was a 40 caliber bullet, a 40 caliber shell casing found in that car. Prosecutors want to suggest it was actually found near where Demons was sitting. Is that the kind of evidence that you think is really? really strong for the prosecution? Yes, Jesse. That's actually what leapt out to me as well.

That combined, you know, with the dog who didn't bark, there's no evidence of this alleged drive-by. There's no evidence that that ever happened. But I think what you pointed to is really particularly strong. Yeah, and they seem to suggest that the bullets that were fired at the car happened after the shooting of the two men, right, so that they were already shot at. after they had been shot. And so it was the man to stage it to look like a scene.

And as I mentioned, one of the, Mr. Henry had no injuries on him. Very weird that two victims were shot and he seemed to be fine. Now, I have to ask you about the defense a little bit. And I'm going to play a portion of their opening statement. Let me play it right now. What happened here is that the lead detective, Detective Moray, saw a video of Mr. Demons

getting into a car 40 plus minutes before bodies were found in that car. And then he discovered that Mr. Demons was a rising star. From that point on, he decided he's the only person that could have committed because if you're involved in prosecuting a star you become a star this was his big

and he had tunnel vision he zeroed in on this person this young man is the only possible perpetrator of that crime to the exclusion of all other leads and evidence so as you heard what they're saying is that you have a famous rap artist and law enforcement immediately zeroed in on him because you go after the famous people, you prosecute them, you go after them, it makes a bigger career, it turns your career up. You go after the famous people, you become famous. Do you think that's a good argument? And I'm glad I have you here to talk about that, because there is something to be said about, do you just go after the most high profile person to make your case? It could be a powerful argument, but for the circumstances of this case.

And here they didn't go after Mellie right away. In fact, it took quite some time before they ultimately arrested him. So I think it's a rebuttable proposition by the prosecution that, no, we actually took our time before we decided to indict here. Do you think there's any truth to what the defense is saying that this was a sloppy investigation, that this was a. botched investigation that they didn't question people that they should have questioned before again turning themselves to melly i don't know enough to know whether that has any merit i know that's an inevitable argument they don't have many cards to play that is the defense and this is an inevitable argument they're going to make you're picking on our client because he's well known

he's a rapper he may be disfavored and you you didn't look at for other suspects. So I think this is kind of standard out of the defendant's playbook. When you're streaming law and crime on your TV or watching our videos on Facebook and TikTok, sound and audio quality is really important so you can hear all of the facts. That's why we want to tell you about Raycon. Raycon is on a mission to prove that you shouldn't have to pay an arm and a leg for quality, sound and essential smart tech listening features. You can get a pair of earbuds and a spare one and still pay less than you would with some of the other big name tech brands out there.

These earbuds are water and sweat resistant. They have three customizable sound profiles and custom gel tips to fit your ear perfectly. They're great for working out, traveling on your commute, or listening to our sidebar podcast, of course. You can get 15% off by clicking in the description or by going to buy raycon.com slash law. Plus get free domestic or flat fee international shipping. all brought to you by Raycon. I want to get your opinion on another big moment for the defense, or I should say it was a potential big moment for the defense. We saw the testimony of Felicia Holmes.

She was an interesting witness, very controversial. She was the mother, or she's the mother of YNW. Melly's ex-girlfriend. She had allegedly told police that she had spoken with YN Melly on the day at YNW Melly on the night of the shootings, that he had FaceTime. both of them. She said it looked like he might have been hiding and waiting for somebody, even though he claimed he was a victim of a drive-by shooting. She kind of recanted that, didn't know whether she said that to police. She said she felt threatened by the prosecution. There was even a suggestion that she was going to be paid off by the defense. They were going to

financially take care of her and when they didn't. She said that she would start basically cooperating with law enforcement. I'm going to play a little portion of her testimony. And in terms of your conversations with the police officers that morning. Yes. I do remember that they kind of bullied me and threatened my daughter to take her to jail for accession after the fact. I do remember that. Yes. And in terms of the statements that you made about what happened, you don't have any recollection.

Did you read this statement multiple times? I put that in and I just didn't call it and I'll... Yeah. And so you indicated, you hooked you were truthful of law enforcement. Yes, my lady. I have to ask you to be more definitive. Were you truthful?

I don't remember what I said to them back then. So if I was to tell you something now, I could be lying. I don't want to understand because you're going to take you to jail. So I'm saying what you want to say anything. I want you to tell the truth. Okay, so I'm doing. Okay. So Ms. Holmes, with regards to that day, did you lie to law enforcement?

I can't ask for you to answer to the truth. Now, the reason this is significant is because the defense filed a motion for a mistrial. They said what she testified to and what evidence was introduced during the course of her testimony was improper. It was highly prejudicial. We had our own legal analyst suggesting there was maybe a good likelihood the judge would rule in favor of a mistrial. And this case would either have gone to a retrial. They would have been retried again or maybe it was dismissed with prejudice. And that would be it.

the judge denied the mistrial. Were you surprised that the judge denied the mistrial? No, I was not surprised that the judge denied the mistrial, and I think the jury will make of it what they will. I mean, I think that it may be that they disregard her testimony in its entirety, given the discrepancies in her testimony. Did you think the idea of, hey, we're going to say the defense team, maybe the defense, the defense team was going to financially take care of a witness so that she

provides favorable testimony. Have you ever heard anything like that? I have not at a trial. I've never had that actually come into a trial, which I guess gets to the point of the motion for mistrial. It can be a very interesting appellate issue. That's the thing, too, and I want to make that very clear. Somebody who's following this case might say, well, the defense's motion for a mistrial was denied what a big loss for them. The other way of looking at it is whatever legal issue they raised, if YNW. Melly is convicted, he could use that as a form of an appeal and say the judge ruled incorrectly and his conviction should be overturned. So that's not the only time we might hear about that. Now, Ben, you've represented

some pretty high profile people, most notably Johnny Depp. That's how you and I met in Virginia. when you were covering that trial. Y&W. Melly is a rather high-profile defendant. He's had a lot of outpouring of support in the community and online. What do you think it's like representing somebody like him? Because he's not only facing a jury, but he's also facing the court of public opinion as well. Yeah, I think it seems that he has a great deal of charisma. You can see, and he's making a lot of gesticulations during the trial.

he's he's interacting a little bit i think you they're going to have to make a long and hard decision about whether he testifies which will which will be a crucial decision here i definitely want to get into that with you but before we do you mentioned his behavior his demeanor he's blowing kisses he's laughing praying smiling is that going to boat over well with the jury I think a little bit of it might be all right. In other words, a stray gesture here or there, a smile to a jury member or to the jury in general, but I think you can really overdo it.

One of the jurors in the debt trial, for example, commented afterwards that he felt intimidated by Ms. Hurd staring at him, and he found it off-putting. So I think a little bit of that goes a long way. So I think he needs to be careful and his team needs to be careful about overdoing it because if you overdo it, it can boomerang on you, especially in light of his background to the extent that gets into evidence. Right. I guess the thing is this is a double murder trial.

This is incredibly serious. And he's accused of being part of a gang. The allegation could be human life means nothing to him. So if you put somebody on there, it's different than I would say, and I'm not saying it's exactly like that, but when we covered the Gwyneth Paltrow trial, that was about a ski accident, questions of whether or not there were outlandish claims being made against Gwyneth Poutro. There were parts, I think, of it, where she was smiling and laughing with her attorneys. She won that case, not saying it's because of her demeanor, but I think that would have been acceptable, like, oh, my goodness, what an outlandish claim to be making here. But this is a double murder trial. Yeah, this is very serious.

That's a great distinction. I think what might pass in that case would not have the appropriate, would not have the same effect here, which is why I said less is more. I think he needs to be careful with that. You would advise him to, you know, maybe change tactics here. And keep it serious, absolutely. Well, now you know what I'm going to ask you. I'm going to ask you the million dollar question, whether or not you would recommend, for him to take the stand if you were representing him, or whether you think he's going to take

the stand. Now, obviously, it's a defendant's choice. This is not a self-defense case where sometimes you would need them to take the stand and explain why they use lethal force. Here's just a question of he's saying he didn't do it. He's not the killer. Will you think there be any advantage for him to take the stand? Well, you know, I go back to the point you made at the outset, which is so crucial that you now only need eight out of 12 in the jury to convict and to impose the death penalty. If it were the standard rule, which it has to be unanimous, I might be more inclined not to have him testify and just hope that you have one or two who are against the death penalty period and who somehow didn't disclose that during voir dire because I think there are

many people who are against the death penalty and even though they say that they can impose it possibly I think there's always a possibility that there's somebody on the jury with that I think he's got you know he has to convince four essentially obviously the prosecution has the burden but as a practical matter he needs four and he may decide or his counsel, it's his choice, as you said, he may decide he needs to do it. I also wonder if he would do it to not only clear his name, but clear any kind of image he has in the court of public opinion, right? In your case, in the Johnny Depp Amber Heard trial, that was a civil case. But one of the big things that your client did was, and if you speak to anybody who was following the trial,

They said he did much better than Amber Hurd on the stand. And he kind of rehabilitated his image on the stand. And, you know, I felt it was kind of necessary for him to give his point of view and say what he said. I'm curious if Mellie's doing the same thing. I mean, he's accused of double murder. If he might be saying, my fans want to hear from me, the world wants to hear from me. Yes, I have to convince this jury, but maybe it's more important for him to tell his side of the story in a open platform like that. He may well think that, and if that is his ultimate decision, and we're speculating, obviously, he's going to have to spend a lot of time figuring out how he's going to explain some of the things in his background.

And you mentioned the gang membership. I think he's going to have to kind of own that up front and try to explain that and explain that before the prosecution gets to him. In other words, he would need to explain the problematic aspects of his past before the other side gets to him first. And that's something that they would really want to think very carefully about because his record is problematic, as you know. It is. How difficult is it representing a high-profile client like this? It can be difficult. I mean, I've been blessed of the high-profile clients and I've had several. I've been fortunate.

All of them have happened to be very thoughtful individuals who are capable of listening and really taking in. They didn't accept, you know, Mr. Depp obviously didn't accept everything we told him, but he listened to it. He took it in, and he adopted much of, at least some of our thinking. I just don't know the extent to which, you know, Mellie is listening to his lawyers. Hopefully, for his sake, he is because he's got good lawyers. And if he's listening to them, together they could probably work on something that would be more palatable than if he were just trying to do it on his own.

And there's so much at stake here. It doesn't get more at stake. As I mentioned, his life is on the line. If he's convicted, it's not just life in prison we're talking about. We're talking about the death penalty. What's your take on the fact that the Florida law changed and it's no longer unanimous and it's just going to be eight to four in favor of death? I'm not a big fan of that. Of course, I'm a native of the District of Columbia, not Florida, but I think that's very unfortunate.

I think if we're going to have the ultimate penalty, I'm not a big fan of the death penalty, but if we are, I think the unanimity is one of the safeguards that the system has. and that's now gone in Florida. And I think that personally, this is just my subjective opinion, I think that's a shame. And, Ben, I'll be the first to tell you, this trial was not on my radar months ago. You know, this case wasn't. I just so happened to be on my honeymoon. And as I'm on my honeymoon, I heard about it. I heard about YNW. Melly.

It was all over. Everybody was talking about it. Are you surprised that it got the attention that it got? Because I'll be straightforward with you, too. When your client, when Johnny Depp Amber Hurd was happening, I don't think a lot of people were talking about it. And then it started up and it blew up. It just became this mammoth of interest. Are you surprised that we're seeing the level of interest we are in the YNW Melly trial?

Well, I think part of it is a function. I am a little surprised, but part of it is a function, I think, of what else is going on in the world. And I think part of it is we're now in the summer. Our trial also, the Depp trial was also in April, May, and ended with the jury verdict on June 1st. I think in a way, these trials are important in and themselves, but they're also a diversion from some of the other news. And as you said, Mellie is an extremely popular artist, and I think that really ratchets up interest. And look, even though there's some strong evidence, I think, by the prosecution, I mentioned the surveillance, the ballistics, the idea that, you know, his co-defendant had no injuries on him, there's that questionable Instagram post about or the questionable social media post where he kind of said, you know, he was involved in this and I think there's a lot of evidence put forward by the prosecution. The defense is not going down without a fight.

And they're trying to say, if you feel there's reasonable doubt, maybe somebody else was a part. of this. What would be the motive for him to kill his two friends? Was it about money? Was it about a gang loyalty? Does that make sense? People are interested in trials where they don't know the answer. I think this is one of those trials where they don't know which way it's going to go. Ben Shue, pleasure as always. You are a gentleman. You're one of my favorite guests. Thank you so much for taking the time, sir. Jesse, thanks for having me. And again, welcome back from your honeymoon. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right, everybody. That's all we have.

for you here on Sidebar. 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. Spotify.