Law&Crime Sidebar - ‘Not a Mystery’: YNW Juvy’s Dad Reacts to YNW Melly’s Latest Arrest for Witness Tampering

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Rapper YNW Melly and his co-defendant, YNW Bortlen, were arrested for allegedly witness tampering ahead of their double murder trials. Melly and Bortlen stand accused of killing their two friends, YNW Juvy and YNW SakChaser, and staging their murders as a drive-by shooting. Juvy’s father, Christopher Thomas Sr., discusses the duo’s latest arrests with the Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy.See 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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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. The lead prosecutor in the double murder trial of Jamel Demence, the rapper known as YNW. Melly, takes the stand to refute allegations she violated rules of the court. Plus, the father of one of the victims, YNW Juvie returns to Sidebar to talk about the latest delay in the trial and allegations of witness tampering. Welcome to Law and Crime Sidebar podcast. I'm Ann Janette Levy. Jamel Demons, known to his fans as rapper YNW. Melly, now faces a witness tampering charge. He's accused of trying to keep

his ex-girlfriend, Mariah Hamilton, from testifying against him. With that happening, the court is also trying to suss out what happened with a possible Brady violation and how that could impact the trial. A Brady violation occurs when a prosecutor fails to turn over evidence that could help a person defend themselves. But let's start with a little background in the case in case you haven't been following it. Mellie is accused of killing two of his best friends in Florida in 2018. Investigators say Demons was a backseat passenger and an SUV driven by Cortland Henry, who is known as YNW. Bortland. Anthony Williams, known as YNW. Sack Chaser, was in the front seat, and Christopher Thomas Jr., who went by YNW. Juvie, was in the backseat of the car.

Prosecutors say Melly shot both Thomas and Williams in the head and then tried to stage the scene to make it look like a drive-by with the help of Cortland Henry. But forensic analysts say the evidence points to someone in the car being the shooter, specifically somebody sitting in the back seat on the driver's side. A jury couldn't reach a verdict after the first trial last summer. Portland Henry's murder trial is now scheduled for January. He does not face the possibility of the death penalty as Dummel Demons does. But Henry now has other legal trouble to deal with. He also was charged recently with witness tampering. Prosecutors say they have jailhouse phone calls that show Henry, who goes by Bortland, as I mentioned, was keeping Mellie's ex-girlfriend, Mariah Hamilton,

from testifying at a deposition earlier this year and later at the trial. Hamilton appeared on Sidebar recently. Take a look. Why do you feel comfortable coming out now and talking about this? Because I just want people to know that I'm not running because of like any money or anything like that. It's because I don't want to go to jail for something that I didn't, I don't want to go to jail for something that I didn't do or something that I'm not a part of. of. I just feel like people's looking at my side of this. They're looking at it, looking at me wrong. Hamilton, of course, is viewed as a key witness for the prosecution because Melly facetimed her after the shooting, according to a prior statement she gave to detectives. A new records

filed in Bortland's case show that he had conversations with Mariah's mother, Felicia Holmes, via Instagram, apparently in 2020. In one of those conversations, Holmes wrote, I'm letting you know he confessed he told everything and we know so I'm going to the detective in another message Holmes wrote about her daughter just leave her alone y'all have ruined enough lives let her live hers she don't need his money Holmes continued she's always lived good and will continue Mellie not the only N word with money and at least I know she won't be harmed he's evil and he snaked someone who didn't snake him Parma. She could have ended Melly months ago. Melly's slow. He's talented, but he has no brains. Holmes then said, he only loyal to you for one reason. You beneficial. As soon as you stop, he'll snake you too. You may recall that assistant state attorney Christine Bradley treated Holmes as a hostile witness at the first trial. Holmes's story had changed from the

time she spoke to police after the murders to the trial. I want to talk to you right now about this. It is Palm Pepper Spray. It's the next generation of pepper spray and a proud sponsor of Sidebar. Palm's formula provides you with the necessary range and capacity that gives you and your loved ones some peace of mind. I have my palm right here and I do not go anywhere without it. It's always in my purse. It has a cute and sleek design. You can see that's super easy to use and prevents accidental misfires. You can learn more about Palm at palmpeper spray.com and use code law crime 10% for 10% off. That's code law crime 10%. The new witness tampering charges are not the only new development, of course. During selection in Mellie's case was supposed to start this week, but Judge Murphy delayed it after the defense accused the prosecution of obstructing justice.

That is a crime. The defense has accused the prosecution of not turning over information that lead detective Mark Moretti had been accused of being willing to lie as he gathered evidence. This involved something that happened when Moretti seized a cell phone that belonged to Mellie's mother, Jamie King. The defense is making a big request here. They're asking the judge to remove the Broward County State Attorney's Office from the case or dismiss the case entirely. And I'm going to tell you right now, that is very unlikely to happen. No judge is going to throw out a double murder case over this claim. Now, from the beginning of a hearing last Friday, you could sense tension between Judge Murphy and Mellie's news.

attorney, James Benjamin. But your motion indicates or your response indicates that the elected state attorney committed obstruction of justice, attempted witness tampering, and a felony pursuant to 838. Absolutely. The state attorney. Absolutely. The state attorney, the elected official, Harold Pryor, we have, and we have good faith belief that he sat on this.

Well, you don't give more than that. You're saying you have probable cause. I think there may be probable cause based on. I think there may be proper cause. Judge, if you cripple over this, you can do that and do it. I'm whittling over, this is a serious allegation. This is a serious matter.

That's right. This is an absolute serious matter that everyone sat down and hid under the carpet for a year. I don't know that everybody did, but I don't know. So why you're asking me why I'm doing it because we allege it and we need to ferret it out, Your Honor, and it is

a serious, but because it's serious, you don't think that Mr. Deming is sitting over there, is it thinking this is a serious matter when this life is on the line where the state attorney's office serious charge, too. I'm not minimized. It's not too. That's why we're here, Your Honor. With all due respect, all due respect, it's a serious matter, but so is allegations about corruption in the state attorney's office at the highest point. Now, Benjamin seemed to call out Judge Murphy, basically saying he didn't look interested in discussing this issue.

When there is an allegation against the lead detective in a first-degree murder case that keyed wide in front of a career prosecutor that's brought to the attention of the elected official, they can't hide under, oh, we don't review every Brady violation. This went all the way to the top of their office the day it happened, and they did nothing, I believe, and I believe that that violates that statute. And I believe that in and of itself, based on one person's sworn testimony, is probable crime. But, Your Honor, I believe based on your body language with your arms crossed and a scow on your face looking at us like we did something wrong, should be much more. I think this is really serious. This is so serious.

Assistant State Attorney Michelle Boutros works for Broward County. She testified that she was in a conference room with lead detective Mark Moretti and Jamie King when Moretti wanted to seize that cell phone as he investigated her for witness tampering. Moretti wasn't in his jurisdiction, but took the phone away from King, according to Boutros. Boutros overheard Maretti asked a Broward County deputy to lie about being in the room when he served the warrant. Robert Trackman, King's attorney, was also in the room. Detective Moretti said to Deputy Morel, you need to say you were here when I served that search warrant. And it was kind of like an awkward moment. Someone described it just kind of getting punched

twice in the head. So there's a search warrant that gets served. And I'm like, what's going on? And then the next thing, he's asking this deputy to lie for him. And again, I'm like, I'm like, this isn't, like, I'm in the twilight. So I'm like, this can't really be happening. Deputy Gorell didn't say anything of any substance. I think he said, is there anything I needed for anymore or something like that. I don't remember if he said anything at all. It was just a very awkward moment after Detective Moretti said that to him. And you specifically remember what was said? I vividly remember what I said, yes. For their part, prosecutors said the whole exchange was a joke and irrelevant. Lead prosecutor, Christine Bradley, says the actual wording of what happened has been

twisted. Do you disagree with what's contained in there? I do. I do not think it is an accurate statement of how I relayed the information. The first sentence indicates that the lead ASA assigned to this matter related to SAO administrators that she spoke with Detective Moretti. Sorry. I thought that she spoke with Detective Moretti in regards to this incident and that Detective Moretti explained that his statement to Deputy Guerrell was a joke. Okay. So is that true that detective already said to you that what he said was a joke? No. What was intended to be conveyed was was that Deputy Gorell, his response was flippant in nature.

That that was the joking aspect of it. Jamie King filed a complaint against Mark Moretti for allegedly using force against her. When the defense found out about this, they said it was a Brady violation. Now, the judge said he would rule on this at a later date, and more hearings are scheduled for this week. So it's not clear when jury selection will begin at this point, but stay tuned to long. on crime, we'll have all of these hearings covered for you. You can watch them on our YouTube channel. Joining me to discuss the very latest in this case is somebody who is a returning guest to Sidebar. He is Christopher Thomas Sr. He's the father of Christopher Thomas Jr. who is Y&W. Juvie. That is

how he was known to music fans. And to people on YouTube, Chris Thomas Sr. is actually known as Spoon. So he said I could call him Spoon. So to all all you YouTube viewers out there, you've seen him on his YouTube channel, and that's his nickname on there. So, Chris, welcome back to Sidebar. Thanks for coming back on. How are you doing, man? I'm doing okay. My question to you is, how are you doing?

That's really the most important question here. You know, after the mistrial that happened in the first trial and now all of this legal wrangling that's leading to a delay in the second trial, how are you? Well, I'm taking it one day at the time. You know, you got to go through this process once again. I'll relive it once again. The last time around, you know, it became very clear early on that we had a juror on the jury, or at least the state did, the defense did, that one juror who seemed to really be hanging things up, and then from what we've read, from the accounts that were given,

that juror was a woman who didn't really want to deliberate and wasn't going to change her mind at all was very steadfast in hanging that jury. When you found out about that, what were your thoughts? I was very disappointed because it was 11 to 1 and then she persuaded two other jurors and seemed like somebody tempered with her or got to her or she was a getting medley fan or something

because Christina did a well enough job to convince 11. So it was almost there. We almost finished. It was almost over. Now we've got to go through it again. And that was very disappointed. You mentioned the word tampering right there. That's kind of a good segue into my next question.

Both Mellie, Jamel Demons, YNW. Melly and Cortland Henry, who is known as YNW. Bortland, are now charged with witness tampering. And that has to do with allegations surrounding what is believed to be two key witnesses in this case, Mariah Hamilton, the girlfriend of Mellie and Alicia Holmes, the mother of Mariah. And there is a, there's a lot of documentation on the court's website talking about this. And it sounds like the prosecutors are saying there was this kind of crazy way that Mellie was communicating. He wasn't allowed to use the phone, but he was passing notes to people, and then this person's calling this person and then that person to relay these messages that Mariah should just stay put and keep doing what she's doing.

When you heard about this, what did you think when you heard about the fact that they had charged both Mellie and Bortland with witness tampering? They like to me, they're going through extreme measures to try to cover up. convince people not to testify like mariah maria maria mom it was using cold words like rihanna and they said rocket's baby mom and to me when i looked at the text messages from me i mean instagram message with hon bortland and she said like um you will never uh you'll never come to somebody because you snake somebody that never didn't anything to you in my mind instantly went into chris like she's talking about jude because he didn't in that situation i ain't saying he was an angel but he didn't snake melly melly took Chris out and for them to even go to this

process all i'm thinking like they don't kill nothing by my son they don't care nothing by chris i'm like dang man felicia holmes and mariah hamilton to sit there and be on y'all channel and talking about juven sack with like brothers to her and then do that to him and that's an insult it just it's just crazy all of them man even if i know melly it's a lot of ever that's not going to be allowed in, but everybody in the world know who it wants to. But the people that's lying and covering up, they need to do something about them people, too. They're my book. They just is guilty. It was interesting at the first trial, Christine Bradley, took a little bit of heat from the defense,

obviously, but she confronted Felicia Holmes on the stand. She treated her as a hostile witness. She was granted that permission to do so by the court. and there were messages even from back then where she was talking about how they said they would take care of us, this type of thing. That seemed like before she got on the stand, it seemed like somebody must have dropped the bag, as they say. Like she must have got paid or something

to get her to change from, to go from how she was, emotional about her daughter's safety and those messages didn't get on the stand and go total backwards. Something had to happen. It was a 360. It was something had to happen.

And she contradicting and everything she said and understand those messages, it's totally like it's contradicted and everything she said. And in my book, she just wanted free mail. And anything that she said, that statement that will be negative against him, she don't remember. And the daughter, she said on y'all's channel, like, basically she was letting the world know she ain't going to remember either. Well, we have, we know what she told police back in 2018. 2019 when this happened and we should let the viewers know that the prosecution does not expect maria hamilton to testify in this second trial this retrial so they've asked the court to declare her unavailable and they want to be able to use her prior sworn statements that it was a statement

to detective meretti they want to be able to introduce that at trial because they don't believe she's going to show up so chris um they must deem this to be a very important witness because melie um by all accounts facetimed her after this happened yep and the mom witnessed it and she saw him and from my understanding that's when she saw him hiding in the bushes with the blood on him and on that face time right after then they met up at fredo bang house and that's when he changed clothes and that's when the whole of world started. It was my understanding, too, on this FaceTime call that he said they were in a shooting.

And so that was what was stated back then. But at trial, they're kind of saying, no, he wasn't even there. He wasn't. He had switched vehicles. At least that's what they said in the first trial, that he had gotten into, it was suggested through a defense witness, the one and only defense witness, that he had gotten into that other vehicle.

Yeah, they were telling me that I drove down there that morning to go, like, identify Chris Body. I met Marady down there that morning, another 26. And on the way down there, when I talked to Jamie, she told me the same thing. Like, don't talk to the media and tell him Mellie wasn't there. Instantly, my intentors went up that I didn't understand. Like, I knew from that on, that day, I knew something was up. You know, tell us a little bit about your son.

I know that we spoke the last time you were on, we talked about Chris. And, you know, you talked about your son. And I think it's important so often the people who lose their lives in these cases, they get lost in all of this. The talk turns about to evidence and, you know, burden of proof and things like that. But this is about your son and this is about Anthony Williams, who is a son to another family. So tell us a little bit about your son, what you'd like people to know, maybe something you haven't shared with us before. Chris was a son, a good friend to a lot of kids.

Like, a lot of them looked up to him, and, like, he was a glue and hold a lot of that crew together. Like, he was the, he was the glue. He was the one that kept everybody together. Like, it wouldn't have been no tension. That's why I can understand. the sack situation because he won't go along with that because he ain't that type of person like his friends like me and him i had conversation about them and i know he loved him he loved all of them just like they was his blood relative all of them and chris had like i said before

chris had two jobs and like he was working at at two different locations then medley was the one to convince him to quit his job and pursue music full time and then last time I spoke to Chris, it was like two days before the incident him and Mellie FaceTime me. And that's the last time I saw him. Last time I spoke to him was like that same week man.

It just hurt me to see that the love that he had for Mellie for Mellie to do that to him. I see if it was one of his enemies or somebody, he did something wrong or something, but the way it happened, how it happened, who did it? It just

on heartbreak. And on both sides. you know and i get jamie i know she probably hurting too because if i was in her situation and i was that on that end i probably feel the same way so i ain't no animosity towards them either but i just want justice for chris simple as that you know it's been going on five years you know we still got to go this again like man come on man either way how the outcome go i just want to be open i understand so chris is finally Rest and peace. Yeah, there are certainly no winners in this.

Obviously, Mellie has a family who loves him as well. And, you know, I think it's nice that you're, you know, that you're able to recognize that because you, I mean, these cases tear people apart. It's awful. You know, you had spoken the last time that we spoke about this agreement about money. And there was going to be this kind of deal that was being. made and then I asked track about that and he denied that that there was some type of financial deal in the works he said he would have known about that but there was

some you know there were text messages at the trial discussing how you know Melly is like well I'll get the money from track and you know I'll get this money for you and there was some back and forth about the YNW Melly brand and who might be I got that I don't know what track got his I don't mean to cut you up I don't know what track got his information from but Chris told me that that's where I got that from. I don't know what he talked about. Well, and I guess I just wanted to ask you about that.

When these text messages came out between Sack and Mellie, and it talked about, you know, it seems like you guys are up to something or, you know, Mellie was kind of going back to his mother and telling her to stay out of it. I mean, it just seems like there was all this turmoil going on. And... Sack knew they were trying to cut him.

out. You could tell from the message he knew. And when Sack asked for money, he's not asking Melly for none of his money. Sack was only asking for what he felt was his, what he was entitled to, because he was the CEO. And like he said, then was his artist. Like, they had the name W. Before Mellie even got out of jail. So then he'd get out, like I said, he was the face of W. He was the first to blow. He just wanted to cut everybody out. So I wanted to ask me about that because you said it's a seat he sack said i'm the CEO so what what did that mean as far as you knew back in that at that time um from far as i know it was but it's a toss up between sack and chris they came up with that y and w and jaylin jick green and melly there was

the four core members not boardland and and everything popped off like they was on tour then was the only four and then uh jaylin left and then that's when everything start going down. But that's how, like, in the beginning, like everybody was, it was all love and they was doing their thing and everybody was room for them. They had the whole city behind them.

But after this, and, like, everybody loved Chris down there what were they from. Like, everybody loved Chris, and they don't, and from these text messages, regardless what's allowed in in court of public opinion, we know what happened.

I don't go to sleep thinking and wonder who, who did what the Chris. I go to sleep knowing who did what the Chris. It's just a part it just now it's it's down to prove it and in court. It is not a mystery to me. You said that everybody loved Chris down there. Obviously Chris trusted Melly. There was some really graphic testimony in the last trial and that you'll have to obviously, you know, maybe you'll skip that part, but I don't, you know, I don't know why I hate that any family has to go through that. But Do you think that Chris in any way ever felt that Mellie would betray him?

Obviously, Mellie is saying he didn't do this. But do you think Chris ever felt anything but, you know, love for Mellie? Was there anything brewing between those two or was this mostly between Sack and Mellie? From my understanding, like I said, I talked them a couple days before that. And from what they was talking about, it didn't seem like they had no tension, no animosity to each other. the sack situation everybody knew about that so but chris nobody seen that coming i know chris didn't see it coming chris was so comfortable i know chris was so comfortable he took his shoes off you see them red shoes in the back seat with blood on those criss shoes he was

that comfortable he took his shoes on man nah he ain't see it coming then the only thing i found i knew was that defensive one with his thumb when he turned like oh like no he ain't see it coming I was going to ask you about that because there was, they did say there was a defensive wound, so he would have been shot from this direction. The left time. Not to drive by side. Well, Chris, do you have any final thoughts you'd like to share? Just keep the family in your prayers. You'll be family, Sack family, Chris and Anthony.

Like, if you, whatever your side of your own, man, just. keep it to yourself man we don't need to hear all the negativity like everybody nobody when in this situation like man god bless and man just pray for all the families involved i just want justice for chris and justice for sex and get on with our lives chris thomas senior thank you so much spoon uh for coming back on we really appreciate it and we'll be following this case closely as it moves forward we appreciate your time and again we're so sorry for your loss thank you I appreciate it nice to hear nice to hear from you 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 remember to hit that subscribe button I'm anginette levy and we will see you next time You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.