Law&Crime Sidebar - Lawyer of YNW Melly’s Ex-Girlfriend Tells All

Episode Date: July 7, 2023

The lawyer representing YNW Melly’s ex-girlfriend, Mariah Hamilton, shares his knowledge of the double murder case, along with how Hamilton and her mother, Felicia Holmes, were involved in the investigation. The up-and-coming rapper stands accused of murdering his two friends, Christopher Thomas Jr., aka YNW Juvy, and Anthony Willams, aka YNW SakChaser, and staging the killings as drive-by shooting. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber discusses YNW Melly, his ex-girlfriend, and the double murder trial with Christopher Beres, the attorney representing Hamilton and Holmes.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 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.

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. View 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. When you first took the stand, you said, I feel threatened. Yes, Sergeant. Who do you feel threatened by? In your eyes? Christine Bradley. Christine Brown. This prosecutor. This prosecutor. Thank you. Christopher Barris, the attorney for YNW Mellie's ex-girlfriend and her mother,

comes on to talk about his client's testimony and has some strong words about the prosecution and law enforcement. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Introducing the next generation of pepper spray. Meet Palm, a new maximum strength self-defense product with a patented modular design. revolutionizing the self-defense industry whether you're carrying the unit on your keys snapping the unit on your backpack your keychain or carrying the unit in your pocket palm is the perfect everyday carry accessory palm's patented flip-top safety prevents any accidental

misfire and its maximum strength formula provides you with the necessary range and capacity to bring peace of mind to you and your loved ones quality safety performance peace of mind Learn more at palm pepper spray.com. Let's talk about YNW. Melly's double murder trial out of Broward County, Florida. So the murder on my mind rapper, whose real name is Jemel 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 Sack Chaser. The two men were found shot to death on October 26, 2018, after Mellie's co-defendant, Cortland Henry, also known. known as YNW. Bortland pulled up to the hospital with the bodies of Thomas and Williams in the car claiming they were all victims of a drive-by shooting. However, the evidence has suggested that this

was a staged drive-by shooting and that the shots actually came from inside the vehicle. Prosecutors say that after the four left a recording studio, Melly shot the victims and then he and Henry took the car to an area where they fired upon the car, staging it to look like a drive-by shooting. Melly gets out. Bortland arrives. at the hospital, and the rest is history. Now, the prosecution has highlighted that why would the defendant do this? Well, they say he was a member of a gang called the G. Shine Bloods. And we can't forget that there is a lot at stake here with this case because the death

penalty is on the table if Melly is convicted. You see, the law in Florida changed. It used to be you needed a unanimous vote for the death penalty. Well, now the law changed. All you need is an eight to four vote by the jury to impose the death penalty. pretty big change there. Okay. So now with all that background, I want to bring on a very special guest. I'm joined right now by attorney Christopher Barris. Now, Mr. Barris represents YNW. Melly's ex-girlfriend, Mariah Hamilton, and her mother, Felicia Holmes, both named as witnesses in this case.

Christopher, thanks so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. My pleasure. Let's start from the beginning. How did you get involved in this case representing these two important witnesses? I entered the case after the trial judge had issued writs of bodily attachment for both Ms. Holmes and Ms. Hamilton. Rits of bodily attachment, essentially bench warrants for their arrest as witnesses. There was another attorney involved before I came onto the scene before me. I don't know his name, but he was intimidated by the prosecution. What do you mean intimidated? The state threatened him for refusing to disclose information about the whereabouts of Ms. Holmes and Ms. Hamilton.

And not that he knew, I don't believe he knew the whereabouts anyway. When you took over, did the state ever try to. intimidate you, threaten you? Because we're going to get to that in a minute. Yes. Now, the state did not intimidate me. I've done dozens of murder trials. I've dealt with dozens of prosecutors, good ones, bad ones. Ms. Bradley was very professional with me. And you're referring, of course, to the prosecutor in this case, which is what I want to get to. Because this is the real media here, okay? So when Ms. Holmes, your client, was called to the stand by the state.

This was really interesting. Her testimony, she was being questioned about statements that she made to law enforcement that the defendant allegedly called her daughter on the night of the killing saying that he was a victim of a drive-by shooting. But it got quite fiery between Ms. Holmes and the prosecutor.

Let's play a little portion of that. And in terms of your appearance here today, you don't want to be here. You need to get me come here. I did. Yes, you did. And in terms of you were served with a subpoena. Never served.

You never served me. And so you were ordered by the court to show up. You never served me originally. The state basically has me on a monitor after going to my job with this. It's embarrassing. I think I'm a criminal. The state has to win my life. And in terms of your...

of your feelings and you will towards the state and myself? I just feel like you're like innocent people. Have I ever any sort of physical violence against you? Do you have any written threats from me? It's intimidating. You've intimidated me this whole time. Can you explain that? Well, it started way back in 2018 when they were initially interviewed by the police.

I believe it was Detective Burm. already. He threatened both Ms. Hamilton. Now, that's Ms. Holmes' daughter, Mariah Hamilton, the other witness that was issued a rid of bodily attachment. There is a threat to both of them for arrest related to the homicides. Now, at that time, Ms. Hamilton was only 17 years old, to juvenile. So, you know, the impact on her was quite severe. And that's where the threat started. Now, I believe Ms. Holmes said that she had never received a subpoena, a witness subpoena or a deposition subpoena. I have yet to see a witness subpoena or deposition subpoena for either Ms. Holmes or Ms. Hamilton. What happened was,

Ms. Holmes went on a vacation. She was arrested on her way back to the United States. So she was arrested overseas. She spent some time in jail at that foreign location. She was extradited or brought back to Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, where she was detained in jail for another three or four days. there was an ankle monitor requirement when she finally did get in front of the judge and she had to suffer that for several months now until her recent testimony at trial. Well, just to clarify this, and just to make sure we're understanding, so you're saying it's not that she necessarily knew that she was being requested to testify at the court because you're saying that she might not have gotten the appropriate paperwork.

It wasn't intentional for her to do this, but she was, when she found out, she was then intimidated and threatened by the prosecution. I'm trying to make sense of it because you know what the prosecution was saying is that she was deliberately trying to not appear in that courtroom, maybe as a way to protect Y&W. Mellie or not be part of the case. Well, that's not really true. And this is why I was employed. I was employed to help the situation.

I went to court at one point for both Ms. Hamilton, Ms. Holmes, to try to get the judge to, and this was, you know, we had had discussions, or I had had discussions before with the prosecutor, Ms. Bradley, about this, and I came to court, and I spoke with the judge. And, you know, I had both Ms. Holmes and Ms. Hamilton waiting in the wings to come into court. But the precondition for them to appear was, again, that the judge would have already vacated the arrest order that he had issued, you know, previously. That didn't happen. And it's still yet to happen with respect to Ms. Hamilton, who is still under. threat of arrest. Do you think the state is being disingenuous when they were pressing Ms. Holmes on this, saying you failed to make court appearances?

We issued you a subpoena trying to, you think their state is being disingenuous with the jury about Ms. Holmes' actions and intentions? As far, again, as far as the subpoena goes, I have yet to see a valid subpoena that was served upon Ms. Holmes to be a witness or to be a deponent before the trial began, of course. And I haven't seen one for Ms. Hamilton as well. It is true that neither witness wanted to appear, but I had arranged for them to do so in order to vacate the arrest order and for them to give the basic information that they had to give. Why did they not want to appear? Because if they had information about what might have

happened that night, why wouldn't they want to testify about it? Well, they were, again, they were threatened early on by the police with arrest for some, on some charge related to this homicide. And that threat was never addressed in court that day. We never. We never got to it because the arrest order hadn't been vacated and my witnesses would not appear without that that was the condition again of of them appearing that day um so they they felt that they were in constant threat of arrest if they were were to come they were going to be arrested they were to say anything they were going to be arrested right let me ask you this there was a point in this cross and i want to play this not even it was excuse me it wasn't even cross-examination it was just

direct examination by the state, where prosecutors were insinuating that Ms. Holmes and Ms. Hamilton were promised to be financially taken care of by YNW. Melly and his team, and maybe Ms. Holmes was upset when that didn't come to fruition. I want to play that right now and get your thoughts. So, Ms. Holmes, is it your statement testimony that you never stated the promises that were made to us by Y&W for me to quit my job? And they would see. care of us for all lives. They didn't want us talking with prosecutors, but now they've all disappeared. You've never said that before. I don't understand anything. Objection, Your Honor, move for a mistrust. Thank you. Would you make of that, sir? Again, if Ms. Bradley had a

factual basis for asking that, okay, I don't know anything about any financial offers, financial gain. I've known Ms. Holmes and Ms. Hamilton for a couple of years now. I don't have any evidence of that myself. I haven't seen anything like that. Okay. Talk about Ms. Hamilton. Do you think she's going to testify or will she be called to testify? Again, I don't know that she received a subpoena.

Also, I mentioned the threats that were made to her as a juvenile at the age of 17 by detectives. Mr. Moreover, the prosecutor has yet to ask the judge to vacate his arrest order for Ms. Hamilton. That could happen. Ms. Bradley wanted it to happen. She could ask tomorrow, or not literally tomorrow, but in court when court resumes. Well, what would she testify, too, if she was called to the stand? I don't know what questions they would ask her.

I imagine they would ask her similar to Ms. Holmes, you know, about the phone call that was received or in the early morning hours of this killing. I suppose she can testify to that. But beyond that, I don't know what else they would ask her or if it would be something that she could testify about. Wow, Miss Hamilton is still under threat of arrest. There's a bench warrant for her arrest. I don't understand how difficult it is or would be to find her, you know, to testify. She's, I'm not a policeman.

I don't have any investigatory, you know, means. But, you know, it seems that if the state wanted to find her, they could. And, you know, it's possible that she does have exculpatory information that she could offer in this case and by that you mean evidence that would exonerate that would show that he's that Y&W Melly did not commit this crime yes exactly and and again is there any indication why you believe she might have that evidence because you're saying it seems like the state is reluctant to call her maybe because they feel that she

has information that wouldn't be good for their case even though it's their duty under the law if they see exculpatory information they have to turn it over My understanding what happened is after the shooting incident, Ms. Hamilton and Ms. Holmes both went to South Florida to see Melly and also to see some other people there who were with Mellie at the time, including the co-defendant. I believe he was there. I can't remember exactly if he was there when they got there or not. But basically, after that, Ms. Hamilton spent a significant. amount of time with with mr. demons okay and also she had a chance to talk with him and also the co-defendant who's also you know not going to testify in my opinion at this trial okay

so what what she could offer it was never really explored because of these threats and I'm talking about threats from law enforcement and the prosecution, not from the defense attorneys. You know, but defense attorneys, as far as you know, his defense counsel didn't interview or didn't interview Ms. Hamilton? No, that's correct. As far as I know, he's never met, Ms. Hamilton, never spoken with her, interviewed her, deposed her.

But he couldn't, again, because of the threat of arrest that was made to her and never revoked, so to speak. And the arrest warrant that was issued, which also was never vacated. So it's, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, but it's, it's tricky because on the one hand, they want this witness to come, I think they want the witness to come and testify, but maybe they don't want her to testify about all the truth and they've scared her off away from that by these threats of arrest. And is there anything more you can tell us about that FaceTime call? The call that YNW. Melly allegedly made to your client on the night of the shooting, you know, that that's. seems to be the crux of it that he that he called her after the shooting i don't know if that was melly talking on the phone i don't know whether it was portland talking um i i think that needed to be

explored i think miss holmes uh was in the house that those early morning hours with miss hamilton and she was i think miss miss homes was just saying what she overheard i don't i think she testified that she saw Melly there, but I don't know whether the voice that whoever called her was actually Melly or it was someone else. Well, she was keen, I think keen to say she doesn't remember what really went down or what she told law enforcement. I think that was the source of the controversy of Ms. Holmes' testimony. Okay.

I understand that. I think the major problem for her, though, was the 2018 interview by Detective Maretti, where she and her juvenile daughter, Ms. Hamilton, were threatened with arrest. I think that was the major problem there. All right. Well, I'll tell you what, Mr. Barris, I appreciate you taking the time. I know this is really a case that's followed by many people. You are connected to it based on your two clients.

We will see if Ms. Hamilton takes the stand, but I appreciate you giving some perspective of what we've seen and what we can expect. Thanks so much for taking the time, sir. You're welcome. Thank you. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts.

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