Law&Crime Sidebar - Rapper YNW Melly Faces Death Penalty Trial for Allegedly Killing Two Friends
Episode Date: June 6, 2023Rapper YNW Melly, born Jamell Demons, faces trial for allegedly killing two of his friends in October 2018 and staging the murders to look like a drive-by shooting. Authorities allege Demons ...killed aspiring Florida rappers YNW Juvy, aka Christopher Thomas Jr., and YNW Sakchaser, aka Anthony Williams, with Cortlen Henry, aka YNW Bortlen. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy breaks down the story so far with SiriusXM host Mina “SayWhat” Llona and Professor Jules Epstein, the director of advocacy programs at Temple University Beasley School of Law.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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Middle is Michael Jason. Literally, Michael Jason. No, what I'm saying? But he's still stagnant,
but he, to an extent, he know how to control his anger. He knows how to control his anger.
He ain't in himself.
But in Melbourne, I only let him out at nighttime.
Rapper YNW. Melly, talking about his two personalities years ago.
Now his trial for the murder of two friends starts this month.
His biggest hit about murder.
If convicted, a new law could make it easier for Mellie to get the death penalty.
This is the story of the YNW Melly double murder trial so far.
Welcome to Law and Crimes Sidebar Podcast. I'm Anjanette Levy. Jamel Demons, known to fans by his stage name, YNW. Melly, is set to go on trial for murdering two of his friends. That's the accusation. He's been in jail in Broward County, Florida for more than four years now. Melly is just 24 years old. YNW stands for Young New Wave. This case involves four members of Mellie's YNW crew. Two are dead.
and Melly and another member, Cortland Henry, who was known as YNW Bortland, are accused of killing
them.
Police say Melly shot and killed 20-year-old Chris Thomas, also known as YNW Juv and 21-year-old
Anthony Williams, who went by YNW Sack Chaser in October 2018.
Video shows them together earlier that night as they recorded a music video.
Police have said YNW.
Bortland was driving the SUV and claimed they'd been shot in a drive-by.
the murders, Meli posted on Twitter, they took my brothers from me over jealousy. I know y'all
watching over me. Months later, in April of 2019, Melly was charged with killing his friends.
He pleaded not guilty. With the support of the victim's families, prosecutors said they would
seek the death penalty. Fortland also faces murder charges. His trial date has not yet been set.
Mellie talked about Juvie and Sack Chasers' names being tattooed on his face before they were killed.
They were in a room with him during an interview for a podcast.
So what did you got tested on your face?
Tell me about it a little bit.
What?
On my face?
Yeah.
We got the heart on this side.
What's that I say above your eyebrow on that side?
Which side?
Oh, either one.
What's it?
No.
I got sat chase right here.
That's my brother.
I'm my twin.
Okay.
Juvvy?
Juvvy?
Just a lot of your friends who pass?
No, them are my f*** right there?
Oh, okay.
My bad. I wouldn't get none of my friend's tattoo on my face until he died.
Mellie rose to fame while serving time for a 2015 shooting incident.
Police said that he fired a gun at several people outside of his high school.
He was just 16 at the time.
When you were in jail, did you feel like, were you ever at a point where you felt like all hope was lost?
Yeah.
You did?
Yeah.
When I first got locked up, because I ain't know what I was, I ain't know what they was going to do.
I ain't know.
I thought, damn.
I was so young. I ain't know. I was like, damn. Just before I made murder on my mind, I was like, man, hell no, they're going to give me a year.
Murder on my mind was Melly's biggest hit, along with Valenciauga Blues. His career was on the rise.
So what was it like working with Kaye? Awesome. Awesome. Super mega, awesome, cool.
But there's more to Mellie than just music. He's also talked about something else that's going on within him.
He claims to have two or more personalities.
So who am I talking to right now?
Am I talking to Mellie, Mel?
Like, who am I talking to?
You're talking to Melvin, because I'm mad right now.
What are you mad about?
You know I'm mad.
We ain't going to talk about that right now.
What's you mad about?
We said let it go, so we're going to let it go.
All right, Mellie is loving, genuine, turned up happy, and just loving.
You know what I'm saying?
Michael Jackson.
Milly is Michael Jackson.
The other personality he discusses is much darker.
His name is Melvin.
Well, Melvin, I only let him out at nighttime.
And I need to stop doing that.
When the night hits, he really comes.
And it's like, Melvin is just like once you play with Melly to a certain extent.
Melvin just don't like that.
Melvin on your ass.
No cap.
He on your ass.
He won't play.
Like many trials, Mellie's has been delayed several times,
because of COVID, but also because of arguments over the death penalty and evidence.
Jury selection has been underway since April.
At that time, Melly's mom, Jamie King, posted on Instagram,
Melly coming home, today I went to court expecting more delays, but we started jury selection.
I can't explain how I feel.
My anxiety is everywhere, but God got us.
Opening statements are expected next month.
In an unrelated case, a news report from 2019,
claimed law enforcement suspected Mellie and Bortland might be involved in the fatal shooting
of off-duty sheriff's deputy Gary Shamblis. His 2017 murder remains unsolved, and investigators will
not confirm whether the two are suspects. Joining me to discuss YNW. Mellie's upcoming murder trial
is Mina. She is an on-air personality at Sirius XM, The Heat, and at 100.3 FM in Philly.
Also, Jules Epstein is with us. He is a professor at Temple University.
Beasley School of Law and a Death Penalty expert.
Thanks to both of you for being with us today.
Thank you for having us.
Mina, I want to start with you.
Let's talk a little bit about why there is so much interest in this case.
We know that this happened back in 2018, these homicides.
Mellie was arrested and charged in 2019.
He's been in jail ever since.
He was really an up-and-coming rising star when this happened.
I think that's the interest.
The fact that he garnered attention from someone like Kanye West.
who was featured on a song with him
he was this rising star
and out of nowhere this situation happened
which is really a mystery
what happened here
who was the car
was this part of a drive-by shooting
was it a shooting that involved
the people inside of the car
I think the fact that he does have a song
that it's called murder on my mind
where he talks about accidentally
shooting someone
I think all those things add to the interest
in the story and just the, I guess, the riddle of what happened here.
And another thing, too, I mean, he has a certain level of charisma.
Am I wrong about that?
Because he seems to really be a charmer when he does these interviews.
And the thing about the personalities is something that really kind of piques my interest
because he talks about how he's got Melly, who's this sweet, loving guy, but then
Melvin comes out after dark and all bets are off.
think he's very much an entertainer and we've seen it play out in his debut album which literally explored
this dual personality that he has um it's kind of like an alternative character but i think it's also
an extension of his mental state of mind right he's been diagnosed with bipolar syndrome ADHD so um all
of this contributes to the fact that he seems to be someone who has battled some mental and
behavioral issues. And he's kind of made it into the entertainment world. And he's managed to
create this persona off of his battles that he's dealing with, which you will hear a lot of that
in the music, the things that he's rapping about. And yeah, I think he's entertaining. And all
of this, all of this really intrigues people and makes them wonder, who is this guy? What is he
about? What personality is he today? And what happened on the night in question? Was this a
situation where maybe he had an issue with his mental health, all of this contributes to the
interest in this story. And I also think that the fact that we haven't heard about what's going
on with his case and trial for four years, I think that the death penalty now being put on
the table, I think that adds to the interest in what happened, what's going to be the defense,
what's going to, what is the prosecution going to say? And how is the death penalty now being on
the table? How is that going to impact this trial?
Jules, I want to address that with you. We do have a young guy here. He's 24 now, but when this happened, he would have been 18, 19 years old. So in many respects, yes, legally an adult, but also still mentally, probably a little bit of a kid. If you look at some of the research out there about how people mature and brain development, things like that, he's going to say he didn't do this at trial. So if we're talking strictly the guilt phase, the things that Mina brought up, the bipolar disorder, the ADHD, how do any,
How does any of this play into defending him?
Legally none.
In other words, if he's saying, I wasn't in the car, I was somewhere else.
It doesn't matter if he's a genius.
It doesn't matter if he has a learning disability.
It doesn't matter if he has a diagnosis of bipolar.
Mental health issues come in when a person's state of mind is at play.
If someone said I was, I shot, but I was in fear, I shot in a momentary state of mental disarray, then mental state is relevant.
If it's saying, I wasn't there, it's not relevant.
Well, we know that Melly was in the car.
And really the facts of this case when we look at it are that they left the recording studio after a late night session.
and they claim Mellie and his co-conspirator claim that this was a drive-by.
But the police claim that's not the case.
They claim that there's no evidence of a shooting where they claim that this drive-by happened.
Their cell phones put them in a different area of town at the time
and that these shots likely came from the backseat where Mellie was sitting.
So all of that on its face, Jules, sounds really, really bad.
But as things unfold at trial, you never know how they're going to go.
So now we're talking about forensic analysis, and forensic analysis is only as good as the people who do it and the discipline that they are deploying.
In terms of where a bullet was fired from, that is not always that hard to discern.
Okay? You can recreate angles. There may be issues of ricochets or things that can distort angles.
But the police, at least from the news reports, seem pretty confident that they can prove the shots were from inside the car, indeed, from the location in the car, as you put it, where he was seated.
If that's true, because my recollection, and I only began familiarizing myself with his case yesterday, is that at least initially he said he wasn't in the car, that there were different disputes, and then there are video putting him in the car.
So first of all, his own history of change statements becomes admissible evidence.
And that doesn't mean he did anything wrong, but in the court of law, people's change of stories denying I was there, but now it's, oh, I was there, but someone else shot is in the law fair game for the prosecutor.
And it makes the case harder.
And they have said that, that there were inconsistent statements made by Mellie and his co-conspirator.
Jules, let's touch on the change in the death penalty law in Florida that Governor DeSantis signed earlier this year.
It doesn't have to be unanimous anymore if they get to that penalty phase where the jury will consider punishment.
It doesn't have to be a 12-0 decision anymore.
It can be 8 to 4.
So say he is convicted, he's a 24-year-old guy, was a much younger guy when this husband.
happened, he could more easily get the death penalty. So your thoughts on that. So I'm going to take
it back a step if I may. First of all, just making this a death penalty case makes it more easy
for him to be found guilty because people who are on a death penalty jury tend to be more
conservative because you have to at least somewhat believe in the death penalty. When they get to that
second trial, because it's really two trials.
Trial one, did you do it?
Trial two, what's your punishment?
The jury does have to be unanimous about one thing,
whether the government has proved what is called an aggravating circumstance.
So it's not just, hey, you're guilty,
but they've actually listed four possible aggravating circumstances.
as long as the jury agrees as to one unanimously.
Then they do this vote.
And you are right.
It used to be unanimous.
And that was really important because the death penalty should only be given when the real community really agrees this is right.
Florida has now said, we don't care if a third of you don't agree.
If two-thirds of you do, that gives the judge permission.
And given that you're starting with a group of people who are in favor of the death penalty,
raising the number of dissents that can still be ignored makes it easier to get a death sentence.
It had to be one juror.
Say one juror disagreed.
It was a life sentence.
So I think that's pretty interesting.
And I think you bring up a very valid point.
because so our listeners and viewers are aware, when it is a death penalty case, it adds a layer
to that jury selection process where they have to make sure these jurors are so-called
death qualified, meaning they say they are willing to follow the law and impose the death
penalty if they feel it's necessary and it's been proven to be warranted.
I know that you had some thoughts and feelings on that.
We were talking last night about how this is a younger guy, 24 years old.
The facts of the case are that these people were all friends.
I mean, they were all in his kind of crew, his group of friends who produced music together.
So he's facing the death penalty at 24 years old, or at least the possibility of it,
when he is alleged to have committed a crime four years ago, five years ago.
This is disturbing to me just because of the changes in what we're talking about.
My understanding from the lowering of the threshold for the death penalty was as a result of the
parkland shooting that happened in florida and as we know this is a premeditated murder by one man
who went into a school a high school and shot 17 people and murdered 17 people um students staff
teacher he said he was guilty so i understand lowering the threshold for someone like that right
even though me personally i don't agree with death penalty i don't think death penalty has any place
in a civilized society. I am a woman of a religious background. And I believe that the only
person that should be, and I don't want to bring religion into this, but my personal beliefs are
that there's one higher being that should be in charge of taking our lives. And I just as a person
don't agree with this. But I do understand that there are heinous individuals on our earth that have
done atrocious things. And I understand why the death penalty is put in place. I just think it's
very dangerous when you lower it to such a low standard where you're not only taking the life of
people who may be heinous, but also people who may not be heinous and people who might have
a mental illness in this situation, someone who might have bipolar depression, someone who might be
ADHD, maybe compulsive issues and can't compose, you know, compose themselves. And all these
things, I think, are dangerous. For this, in this particular situation, we don't know what happened.
They were all friends. This could have been a mistake. This could have been a lapse of judgment.
It's up to the prosecutor to prove that.
But I think at the end of the day, he has said that he is innocent.
And after this happened, he went on social media and he said, I lost my brothers.
So there's so many unknowns about this case.
Where they shot at?
Did he do the shooting?
Regardless of the situation, that is not the same as the Parkland mass murder shooting that happened.
And I think it's very dangerous as a society when we start applying the death penalty to cases that not only,
involve mental health individuals, but also that don't involve premeditated murder and defendants
claiming that they're innocent.
Now I jump in.
Of course, Jules.
Okay.
So I just want to say, following up on what Mina said, I want to separate the heinous deed from the heinous person.
I actually know a lot about the Parkland case.
That was a heinous deed by a person.
person, Mina, who had even more psychiatric and emotional problems than the one you're describing
here. And one of the problems is that people conflate or mix together how terrible the murder is.
All murders are terrible, but some are even worse, from how terrible this person is. I think
your other point, which is really, really critical is there are murders that happen
after days and weeks and months of planning and then there's something that happened in the moment
the law treats them the same right or wrong okay the law treats if if i plan a murder for a month
or if i look at you i'd never do this and say mina i want you dead and you're dead those are
both treated the same as premeditated even though i premeditated for
second, not a month. But you are right that the less planning, the more spur of the moment,
the more situational, that should help to take a case out of death penalty world. I need to add one
other thing, which is something we haven't mentioned, which is the race of melody. Because we all
know that race remains the thumb on the scale, and like it or not, no matter how,
how well-intentioned people are.
To some people, they look at a young black man and they'll look at them differently than
if it were my young white son, no matter what else is going on.
And that's yet another problem that Mellie faces here.
And I think it's important that we point out the difference, obviously, Nicholas Cruz,
much different.
We know how much planning went into that.
These are two completely different cases.
and in Nicholas Cruz's case, they gave him life.
So I think it's important to note that as well.
They found that there were mitigating circumstances.
And we're not even to that point yet,
but it's important to talk about this as we kind of do an overview of this case.
And it'll be interesting to learn more about the facts of the case
and what the prosecutors are alleging as the motive.
Because as I mentioned, these were a group of people,
four people who were friends and produced music together.
So Mina, Lona, thank you.
so much for joining us. Jules Epstein, Professor of Law, thank you as well. It's been great
talking with you. And we hope to have you back as we cover this trial as it begins and moves
forward. Yes, thank you. Thank you. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime's Sidebar
podcast. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get
your podcasts. 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.
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