The jury in XXXTentacion’s murder trial has found three defendants guilty of the murder of the “Moonlight” rapper’s death in 2018.
The verdict comes 12 days after the jury began deliberating on Wednesday, March 8, for a total of 26 and 17 mins – one the longest amount of time a Florida jury has taken to arrive at a final decision.
The three suspects Michael Boatwright, 28, Dedrick Williams, 26, and Trayvon Newsome, 24, are accused of robbing and killing 20-year-old rapper XXXTentacion, whose real name is Jahseh Onfroy, during an armed robbery in 2018. A fourth defendant, Robert Allen, who took a plea deal for 2nd-degree murder charges, became a state witness and testified against his friends.
The defendants were expressionless as they sat with their attorneys following the marshal’s announcement that there was a verdict. Defendant Williams wore a red plaid shirt while Newsome, in a white blazer and brown shirt, sat to his left with his attorney separating them. Boatwright, to his extreme left, is wearing a brown blazer with a turtleneck and glasses next to his lawyer.
Circuit Judge Michael Usan opened the proceedings by outlining the rules of the court before reading over the verdict per charge per defendant.
The jury found all Newsome, Williams, and Boatwright guilty of the murder in the first degree and guilty of armed robbery with a firearm. The jury also found that Boatwright was the one who shot and killed the rapper, while Newsome was the other gunman.
Judge Usan reading out the verdict on Boatwright, found him guilty of first-degree murder with a firearm.
Jurors found that Boatwright had possessed a firearm, and during the crime committed, he actually discharged the firearm and actually inflicted death on Onfroy.
The jury also found Boatwright guilty of all elements of the second charge, armed robbery with a firearm- possessing of a firearm, discharging said firearm, and actually inflicting death on Onfroy as a result of discharging said firearm in his possession.
Newsome was also found guilty as the second gunman on all elements of the second offense.
The jury was made up of seven women and five men, and the jury poll revealed that there was a unanimous guilty verdict from all of them who voted ‘yes’ that the three defendants were guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm.
During the trial, prosecutors shared video evidence of the last moments of the rapper’s life as he went off searching for a motorcycle at Riva Motorsports in his hometown. The prosecutors shared a video of the men, alleged to be Allen and Williams, spotting the rapper in the store before the latter claimed to recognize the “Bad!” rapper and his luxury BMW sedan and went to his Instagram page to confirm his identity.
Williams is accused of being the mastermind behind the murder and the one who came up with the scheme to rob the rapper, as well as convinced the others to do the deed.
While exiting the business place, the rapper put up a fight, prosecutors said, as he fought to hold onto his bag, which contained $50,000 cash, he had withdrawn from the bank just before he went to Riva Motorsports to purchase the motorcycle.
Defendant-turned-state-witness, Allen testified that he, along with the other three defendants, hired a car and carried masks, hoodies, and firearms as they went out to commit robberies against any unsuspecting victim.
They only planned to rob XXXTentacion after spotting him at Riva and recognizing him. XXX, on the other hand, had gone to the bank to get $250,000 to buy motorcycles at Riva Motor Sports.
The rapper smiles and beams at the bank teller in a video played in court. He only received $50,000 because the bank was out of cash, but he merrily went on his way with his “step-uncle” Leanard Kerr to Riva Motorsports.
Testimony from Allen is that Williams hatched the plan to rob the rapper despite him convincing him not to.
“I tell them I saw triple XXX and get quiet and Deidrick (Williams) asked what they gon do and I tell them uh nah I don’t think that’s a good idea because I’m on camera,” he said on the stand.
“I knew it was a great chance we would get caught,” Allen said when prompted by the prosecutor.
Allen adds that Boatwright and Newsome (the two alleged gunmen) did not want to rob the rapper, but it was Williams (who also acted as the getaway driver) who convinced them.
Boatwright responds, “all right, we’ll get him'” Allen says and adds, “Chucky (Williams) came up with some type of theory that if he leaves out of the parking lot that if he came out of parking lot and moved in the next parking lot it would look like we left.”
He also describes the moment XXXTentacion is ambushed, saying, “They drive around and as they are coming out, Deidrick blocks him off. Michael Boatwright and Trayvon Newsome get out and rob him,” Allen said.
He adds, “he (Boatwright) has his rifle stuck in the car,” “(Newsome) he’s pulling on XXX’s necklace,” and “(Newsome) reaches inside to grab the bag, as he grabs the bag, shots are fired,” Allen says and confirms that Boatwright shot the young rapper “two or three times.”
When they get into the car, Allen describes the conversation: “‘Trayvon (Newsome) asked Michael Boatwright why he shoot him’ and Boatwright replies, ‘that he reached for the gun'”
Allen told the court that he received $5,000 from Boatwright while the others took $15,000 each.
“He (Williams) actually said I wasn’t going to get anything at all…(Boatwright) said you gotta give him something, he was there.”
Boatwright was represented by Joseph Kimok, who led defense evidence that his client was innocent.
“The police in 2018 arrested the wrong man,” he said and went on to say that police failed to investigate another man- Keith Grayly. Boatwright also had an alibi – his grandmother said he was at home in bed sleeping and nowhere near Riva Motorsports on the day XXX was killed.
Kimok does say about the prosecution’s evidence that Boatwright took “stupid photos” with money belonging to Allen from the robbery.
As for prosecution evidence of Boatwright’s computer searches for “accessory to murder” and rapper XXX, the lawyer says the defendant was scared after seeing reports of XXX’s killing, and the search is “strong evidence of his innocence.”
Williams’ lawyer, Mauricio Padilla, also introduced the possibility that XXX had so many enemies in hip-hop that his client was innocent despite the overwhelming evidence against him.
Padilla tried unsuccessfully to have the court force Canadian rapper Drake to sit for a deposition to tell them about his beef with XXXTentacion shortly before he died.
The rapper’s beef had been over his style of music, which he said Drake stole, but the judge denied the request noting that not only had XXXTentacion cleared up the allegation stating his account was hacked, but that there was nothing else to show that Drake or the Migos might have been involved in the rapper’s killing.
Their sentencing date is set for April 6, 2023.
