Death penalty retrial in September for Gifford rapper Jamell Demons, known as YNW Melly

Yahoo

16-04-2025

Famed Gifford rapper Jamell Demons, known as YNW Melly, wants a judge to release him from jail while he waits to go on trial for a second time in the brutal murders of two childhood friends after a 2018 recording session in Broward County, court records show.
His first death penalty trial ended in a mistrial in July 2023 when a hung jury failed to reach a verdict after three days of deliberating whether Demons, 25, was guilty of fatally shooting Anthony Williams, 21, and Christopher Thomas Jr., 19, in Miramar on Oct. 26, 2018.
Demons again faces a possible death sentence if he's convicted at a trial Broward County Circuit Judge Martin S. Fein has scheduled to begin Sept. 10.
Last month, his attorneys argued in court papers that during several years in jail awaiting trial, Demons has been the 'subject of extreme mental abuse at the hands of the Broward Sheriff's Office.'
'He has not had any contact with the outside world in three years. Mr. Demons remains to this day, a lucrative recording artist with streams of incomes,' his lead Miami lawyer Ravon Liberty wrote in a March 28 motion seeking his release.
'He cannot contact his managers or accountants, as a result he has lost any control over anything he has.'
Demons has not been allowed to talk to his mother, siblings or friends, Liberty noted.
'Mr. Demons is not allowed to speak to other inmates in the jail and over a year ago a sheet was put over his cell door so no other inmates can look at him when they walk by,' the motion argued. 'Mr. Demons continues to defend his constitutional rights to justice and liberty.'
Demons' legal team will get a chance to argue for his release during a hearing scheduled for May 6, records show.
Demons and his childhood friend and recording partner Cortlen 'YNW Bortlen' Henry, 26, have pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm in the deaths of Williams, of Gifford, who was known by the stage name 'YNW Sakchaser,' and Thomas, of Fort Pierce, also known as 'YNW Juvy.'
The four men grew up together and were members of the same hip-hop group.
Kendrick Lamar namedrops Florida rapper: Who is YNW Melly?
YNW Melly: 25-year-old rapper awaiting trial in 2018 murder case
Their stage names all include 'YNW' because they belonged to the same hip-hop collective. It stands for 'Young New Wave' or another phrase that includes a racial slur.
When the murders happened, Demons was just rising in the hip-hop industry. He gained rap fame with his song titled "Murder on my Mind" on his 2018 tape "I Am You."
Demons collaborated with controversial rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, on the 2019 song "Mixed Personalities." He also released a remix with the late rapper Juice WRLD, who died in 2019, on his song "Suicidal" in 2020.
His first trial was live streamed on numerous online platforms, including the Law & Crime Network, and was widely reported on news websites and on social media.
Prosecutors and police have said Demons, after a late-night recording session, shot Thomas and Williams inside a Jeep Compass and he and Henry then tried to make it look like a drive-by shooting.
After killing both men, prosecutors said Demons and Henry drove the bodies to an area near the Everglades, where they shot at the back and passenger sides of Henry's Jeep from the outside to make it look like Williams and Thomas were victims of a surprise attack.
At about 4:35 a.m., Henry pulled into Memorial Hospital Miramar with the bodies of Williams and Thomas in the passenger seats of a bullet-riddled SUV and told police the two were killed by unknown assailants.
Police later said Henry and Demons orchestrated the killings. They've also claimed ballistics tests showed the pair were fatally shot inside the vehicle.
Demons' attorneys have repeatedly rejected that claim as lacking credibility because Demons and the victims were close friends and recording partners. They also focused on the fact that a murder weapon was never recovered.
Henry, who faces up to life in prison if convicted during a separate trial, was arrested in Texas and extradited to Broward County on Feb. 12, 2019. Demons surrendered in Broward County a day later.
In addition to asking Fein to free him from county jail, Demons has turned to federal court in a bid to secure his release, records show.
In November, his lawyers filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus petition that accuses Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony and the Sheriff's Office of 'egregious violations' of his civil rights.
'Demons has and continues to be subjected to the type of debilitating isolation that renders his conditions of incarceration cruel, unusual and beyond belief in a civilized society governed by constitutional safeguards,' his attorney Michael A. Pizzi wrote to U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian seated in Miami.
Pizzi accused sheriff's officials of violating Demons' rights in part by not allowing him family visitations while in custody or phone calls to his lawyers.
'This isolation has inflicted enormous emotional impact on him and is designed to deteriorate his mental health and his ability to prepare for a trial,' Pizzi wrote. 'These restrictions are not for security reasons and bare no rational relationship to any legitimate security interest.'
In rejecting Demons' claims, attorneys for Sheriff Gregory Tony stated he was seeking relief in the wrong court because Demons hadn't first exhausted his remedies in state court.
And any restrictions placed on Demons' confinement, attorneys Colin Tillinghast Hayes and Christian Tsoubanos wrote, were 'implemented for legitimate security and safety concerns."
The attorneys, too, noted that Demons' restrictions in part relate to separate criminal charges he faces in a witness tampering case, 'in which he is alleged to have tampered with witnesses for his pending homicide case while in (Broward Sheriff's Office) custody."
When Demons was first incarcerated, according to the Sheriff's Office lawyers, he was placed in a housing unit and 'afforded his phone and video visitation privileges, as is any other inmate.'
But because Demons' conduct over the past four years 'threatened the security and safety of jail operations,' jail officials 'found it necessary' to restrict his phone and video privileges, and provided him with 'alternative means to communicate with counsel, family and friends.'
"As of today, petitioner (Demons) is housed in an entire housing pod by himself and still otherwise has all the amenities afforded to other inmates, other than phone and video privileges,' attorneys Hayes and Tsoubanos wrote.
No hearings are currently pending in the case after Judge Damian cancelled an evidentiary hearing set for March 13, filings show.
Demons' tampering charges were filed on Oct. 4, 2023, just as his death penalty retrial was about to begin and relate to making sure a key witness didn't testify at his first trial, according to prosecutors and court filings.
Demons is accused with Henry and Broward County Jail inmate Terrence Mathis, 41, of engaging in witness tampering in 2023 between April 10 and July 22, records show.
When Henry was arrested on the witness tampering offenses, he was returned to the Broward County Jail after his pretrial release granted in 2021 was revoked.
Demons has pleaded not guilty to charges of tampering with a witness in a capital felony; directing the activities of a criminal gang; two counts of solicitation to commit tampering; conspiracy to commit tampering; two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
He faces up to life in prison, if convicted.
Mathis in April 2024 was convicted of second-degree murder in an unrelated 2017 shooting death of a man during a botched robbery, court records show.
Prosecutors in court records have accused Demons of being a member of the Bloods street gang. He reportedly used phone calls made by other jail inmates at his request and letters passed between them to get messages to Blood members on the streets. Those members, according to prosecutors, successfully made sure a key witness didn't testify.
Meanwhile, Demons' former girlfriend Mariah Hamilton, 24, who was arrested on Jan. 26 as she returned to Miami after an international trip, is on tap to testify for the state against Demons after she skipped out of his first trial, court records and multiple media reports show.
She was Demons' girlfriend in 2018 and had been ordered to testify at his first death penalty trial but she couldn't be located.
Hamilton, records show, was arrested "pursuant to a writ of bodily attachment," meaning she was not charged with a crime, but was detained related to being a state witness in Demons' case. When Hamilton was a no-show at Demons' 2023 trial, she violated a judge's order.
On Feb. 7, Circuit Judge Martin S. Fein ordered Hamilton released from jail with GPS monitoring and noted that she is "a material witness in state vs Jamell Demons."
And that's not the only unexpected development ahead of Demons' retrial.
In January, it was revealed in court that Demons' lead lawyer Ravon Liberty had been under investigation by the Broward County Sheriff's Office, which included her learning that a warrant had been issued to Apple to retrieve her account information.
Prosecutors have confirmed that the Broward Sheriff's Office is investigating Liberty, related to tampering with evidence charges filed against Demons, however it remains unclear what activities of Liberty's authorities are investigating.
Judge Fein, who has questioned Demons in court about his desire to keep Liberty on his legal team in light of the Sheriff's Office investigation, instructed prosecutors in January to provide to him the "Apple iCloud search warrant concerning Raven Liberty' issued in December 2023.
She has not been charged with a crime.
The Liberty investigation is one of several twists in a case full of legal turns that's included swapping out prosecutors after former lead Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley was ordered off the case on Oct. 12, 2023. The move came after Demons' defense claimed the state failed to reveal that their lead investigator, Miramar Police Detective Mark Moretti, had been previously accused of being willing to lie as he gathered evidence in the case.
In removing Bradley, Circuit Judge John J. Murphy III didn't find that her integrity had been compromised, but filings show he agreed she couldn't prosecute the case if the defense intended to call her as a witness regarding Moretti's credibility.
Judge orders mistrial: What does this mean for Gifford rapper YNW Melly?
Attempted retrial: Jury selection continues for Gifford rapper Jamell Demons, known as YNW Melly
Retrial delayed: Double murder retrial of famed Gifford rapper YNW Melly, on hold
Broward Assistant State Attorneys Alixandra Buckelew, Taylor Collins and Justin Griffis have been assigned to prosecute Demons and Henry, records show.
The state is still waiting for the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach to rule on an appeal prosecutors filed in December 2023 after Judge Murphy, who presided over Demons' first trial, excluded as evidence some of his phone records, emails and social media posts, in addition to a promotional video Demons released shortly after the murders.
A request to hold oral arguments before the appeals court was filed in December but a date hasn't been scheduled, records show.
Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at [e-mail].
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Gifford rapper YNW Melly faces execution if convicted at trial