Law&Crime Sidebar - Top 6 Critical Moments from YNW Melly’s Double Murder Trial Week Three

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

Prosecutors seeking to lock up YNW Melly continued to present evidence this week that they allege proves the rapper killed two of his friends and staged the murders as a drive-by shooting in 2018. Jamell Demons faces the death penalty if he’s found guilty of killing Christopher Thomas Jr., aka YNW Juvy, and Anthony Williams, aka YNW SakChaser. The Law&Crime Network’s Angenette Levy breaks down six critical moments from week three of YNW Melly’s double murder trial.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW:Save 10% on your entire POM Pepper Spray order by using code LAWCRIME10 at http://bit.ly/3IGNFxvLAW&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. Can you exclude the shots to the head for Mr. Williams and Mr. Thomas is coming from outside of the park? Yes. Testimony that throws cold water on the claim in the YNW Melly double murder trial, that the shooting that killed two young rappers was a drive-by. These are the top moments from week three in the trial of Jamel Demens. 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 palmpeper spray.com. I'm Antoinette Levy and welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar podcast. We just wrapped up the third week of YNW Melly's double murder trial. It started out with YNW Melly's text messages and gang affiliation, then it moved on to the medical examiner and an expert in bullet trajectory and crime scene reconstruction. Melly faces the possibility of the death penalty of convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Chris Thomas Jr. and Anthony Williams in October of 2018.

Thomas and Williams were part of the YNW Collective and went by YNW Juv and YNW Sack Chaser. Melly's co-conspirator, Cortland Henry, who went by YNW. Bortland, also faces charges in their deaths and will be tried separately at a later date. Melly, whose legal name is Jemel Demens, faces the possibility of the death penalty under a lower threshold of an 8-4 vote by the jury that was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis this past April. The week started off with Danny Polo, the state's gang expert. He told the judge during week two that he has a 50,000. bounty on his head because of his work. So he asked to wear a mask. The defense objected, saying the jurors and Melly had a right to see him. The judge let him wear that mask. Polo has also testified in the XX in Tashione trial and others as an expert. But first thing on

Monday, the defense brought up the mask again. May I inquire from the witness? Sure. Sir, are you aware that your picture what along with your family is on the internet as we sit here today. No. May I approach? You may. I show you what is a picture and ask that that is you and your family? Yes, sir.

And that's on your wife's cash out. Yes, sir. Which is available to anyone who runs at. We just ran this morning. I guess so. I did my best to keep things to them. we would object to him continuing to testify with his mask on based upon that as the public record. Detective Polo was clearly surprised that his photo was on the internet.

The judge said the mask had to come off, but that the cameras could not show his face. The prosecutor, Christine Bradley, presented text messages from Mellie's phone before and after the homicides through Polo's testimony. In the two weeks before the homicides, Mellie was clear. looking for a gun. On page 17, October 14th of 2018, can you read that one and explain what it's meaning? 9807 number asks,

you know someone's selling a glizzy? Glissie is a slang term for a Glock. Okay. Then Polo showed another text after the homicides. The state says it shows Melly was a member of the blood's G-Shine set. There's a message from, again, the genome to the 9807 phone number. If you could read that message aloud.

Are you a RU? I was thinking you should drop a few chains and give them to the game. That will show people who you connected with. It's not mandatory. Just thought. Okay. the response not everybody of course is there a like dues or tithing that's required as for membership in a criminal gang yeah as described in the oath and many times throughout the Bible it's not about the individual about the collective the mere the fact that he wasn't even communicating with Gino and with his

line up enough that was enough for them to say you're not doing it enough for us and now to step further let's you know we need to be brought to these shows and you should buy this some jewelry because that jewelry's not cheap okay so then the next message from December 12th is says you're in the position to be a young dawn what is a young dawn higher above captain okay is that one of the ranks they didn't reference that name as a as in their Bible as what they call it their ranks so it's I think it's just like a term related to the mafia Don and the response from the 9807 phone number is let's do it okay then

on cross-examination Mellie's lawyer questioned Polo about whether Melly was really a Bloods member. We were also speaking yesterday about the fact that Melly was largely unresponsive to many of the overtures that were being made, the attempts to recruit him, right? I think he was already recruited, but the, yeah, what you're saying is he wasn't responding to the people who were necessary. Okay. Within the organizations.

Okay. And I had gone through a list of, or a demonstration of several messages that were not being responded to, right? Correct. And I think I had asked you later on in my examination whether that was Gino and you're like, no, that's not Gino. Yeah, there was, we went through two different, I think, text threads. was Gino and was her.

The jury also heard testimony from the pathologists who performed the autopsies on Chris Thomas and Anthony Williams. Dr. Rebecca McDougall performed Sack Chasers autopsy. The first injury to the head was the fatal injury. So in this case, that's the fatal injury because the other two he was dead when they were inflicted. So, this person, when he received the other two injuries, was already deceased. Correct. Did not suffer any pain from those two injuries.

He's already dead. Fair enough. Okay. And you indicated that these injuries were indetermined. Correct. Which means, in layman terms, simple terms for me to understand. means that you cannot tell how far away or how close the shooter or shooters were when this occurred. Yes.

And Dr. Adrian Souter performed the autopsy on Chris Thomas, who is known as YNW. Juvie. Can you show the mark that you placed on that that would be equivalent to the mark A on Christopher Thomas' face? So the entrance would wound would be approximately right here on the cheek. And in terms of where the occipital bone, where you said that the impact or the terminal location of the bullet was, where would that be on that? So in order to accurately depict that, you would have to open the brain. And if I don't do that, then approximately right here, but on the inside. And so if you just turn around to show that to leave number of the jury and points in there. Okay.

Moving on to the next photo, C, the C line up with B, is that the other side of the hand? Yes. Can you tell if this is an entrance or an exit room? No. Same reasons as for B? Yes. Okay. In terms of wound D, what are we looking at here?

D is a defect to the... D is the entrance wound to the medial lateral aspect of, I mean, I'm sorry, medial dorsal aspect of the left foot. And if you could explain what dorsal means? posterior. And how can you tell that D is an entrance room? Because of the characteristics of the wound. and because it has an abrasion margin.

In terms of the order in which you label from A to D, are you suggesting in any way that that's the order the wounds were inflicted? No. The state then called Sergeant Christopher Williams, who is a crime scene reconstruction expert to really explain what those autopsy results meant and how the shooting occurred, in his opinion. He testified that shots fired inside the SUV, killed GV and SAC Chaser. So Mr. Williams was not even aware he was about to be shot.

When Mr. Williams was shot, Mr. Thomas puts up his hands and is shot and then a shot again. There's no time for anybody to switch a firearm if there were, I believe one of those individuals would be on it. There's no time to switch. It was a very rather rapid event of firing. Can you say the length of time between the fatal shots and then the stage drive-by shots later on? It was enough time for the heart to stop feeding, for there to be no circulation due to the wounds that I examined from the medical examiner's office. none of the wounds have any blood in them which tells me that they're all anti-mortem wounds so they're the time was it long enough for the heart to

stop beating okay is there scientific or medical testing to recreate that in any way shape or form yes it's it's science knowledge that's the I'm sure the medical examiner could say the same thing so in terms of it's not that can be recreated with a live payment. Correct. In terms of the number of shots, you said 17 outside the car. How many rounds were fired inside of the car? Three. And can you exclude the shots to the head for Mr. Williams and Mr. Thomas is coming from outside of the car? Yes. The defense really couldn't share. sergeant Williams, although they tried. He was confident in his assessment that Juvie and

SAC Chaser were shot inside the SUV. What's the best way to get an idea of how big the inside of that car is? You can measure it or you can also view it. And where's that car right now? That car is in the pregnancy unit forensic processing garage right now. Is it available for the jury to view this morning? Yes. Now the jury didn't get to see the car this week. because security needs to be arranged for the jurors to see it. But that could happen next week. So the jurors will get an up-close view of that SUV. On Thursday, prosecutors told Judge Murphy,

they planned to call Chris Thomas Jr.'s mother to testify. And are you related to one of the incidents in this case? Yes, I am. How so? His mother. And who is that? Christopher Thomas. The defense did not want Chris Thomas' mother to take.

take the stand. They were concerned it could cause a mistrial if the testimony became too emotional. But she was called for a very limited purpose to identify the people leaving the recording studio on October 26th, 2018 at 219 a.m. shortly before the murders. Clause 21915. Ms. Phillips, did you see who entered into the occupants who entered into that gray g? And is that a yes? Yes. Do you recognize? Do you recognize? where your son entered that grade jeet? Yes. Which seat, if you can identify for the jury?

He got in the back seat on the right-hand side. Did you recognize the individual that got into the back seat on the left side, the rare driver's side? Yes. And who was that individual? Jamel. And Jamal, is that the defendant? Jamel Demons?

Yes, ma'am. And do you know him by another name? No. Melly. And do you see Mellie Jamel deans in the courtroom? Is he identified by your article of clothing and where he's sitting in the courtroom? He's sitting out of there. He has a took single for her. I think he was for. Okay. Leandro Phillips's testimony was brief. You could see she's been through so much losing her son

and now sitting through this trial. And really, she's sitting there watching this video of her son, moments, minutes possibly, before he was murdered. So she's watching him get into this vehicle, basically riding to his death. The defense did not ask her any questions, which was likely a very smart move. Ms. Phillips, we want to express our condolences to you. Thank you. After that, the prosecution showed the jury more than 300 videos and photographs from the phone, the state says, belonged to Melly at the time of the murders. The defense has raised the possibility that Mellie wasn't the only person using the phone number that ended with 9807. The name on the phone is actually Young Sack Chaser.

The phone includes many texts to Mellie's mom and also other rappers, including Fredo Banks, who picked him up the morning of the murders. To prove to the jury that this phone indeed belonged to Mellie and was in his possession before and after the murders, Assistant State Attorney Christine Bradley showed the jury each video and photo one by one that show Mellie holding the. phone or photographing himself with the phone taking a selfie. Investigators extracted the videos and photos from that phone. And on Friday, Cortland Henry, who is YNW Melly's co-defendant in the case, appeared in court

for a status hearing and his attorneys were asking to modify the conditions of his release. Yes, Judge, as the court, when we were here the last time you let him go to church and stuff, you said about working, you would be subject to seeing his schedule. He filed a schedule for the next couple of months. I saw that. And he would like to be able to work. And I talked to his probation supervisor. She has no problem with him at all.

She said that if he's going to go to work, she'd like anybody has to do, provide an itinerary where he's going to be, how he's going to get done, when he's going to be back, you know, in the normal check-in, drug testing, everything that goes with back. This schedule includes, you know, locations, all across the eastern seaboard in midwest in terms of the ability to supervise for probation at retrial rather that is almost impossible with regards to the timeframes and all of the studio in issues on that I don't understand why they

have to be until midnight or 11 p.m. why they can't be done during other hours on that so the state would object and he's already shown prior issues with pre-trial. So for those reasons, the state would say that the current schedule has been making for another three or four months at this point before we'll be in charge. Respect to the motion tonight. I'm right.

Thank you. Portland didn't look very happy as he left court after Judge Murphy denied his request to modify his bail to allow him to travel. He remains on house arrest and his trial is scheduled for October. The trial of YNW. Melly is dark next week. The 4th of July falls at that time. Testimony will resume the following week, and we will, of course, have it covered for you on law and crime.com and law and crimes YouTube channel and on the Law and Crime Trial Network.

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 podcasts. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Jeanette 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.