The Broward County State Attorney’s Office has confirmed that “Murder on My Mind” rapper Jamell Demons, also known as YNW Melly, will be retried.
The confirmation was reported by Rolling Stone on Tuesday following the declaration of a mistrial on Saturday after the jury failed to come up with a verdict after being deadlocked for over 14 hours. According to the publication, the Broward County State Attorney’s Office says it will pursue a retrial. The state has 90 days to make their application for the new trial to begin.
The rapper is charged with first-degree murder of his friends, Christopher Thomas, YNW Juvy, and Anthony Williams, YNW Sakchaser. The rapper’s trial lasted about six weeks, with the jury going off to deliberate on whether he killed his friends.
Prosecutors alleged that Melly had killed his friends by shooting them at point-blank range in a grey SUV after they left a music studio on October 26, 2018. Melly is alleged to have killed his friends and then ask for a pick up from his friend fellow rapper Fredo Bang to pick him up, and his other friend, Corten Henry, also called YNW Bortlen, helped him to cover up the murders by taking the victims to a nearby hospital and telling authorities they were shot in a drive-by shooting.
The jury had a difficult job of deciding whether Melly actually murdered his friends, as prosecutors say, but very little direct evidence tied the rapper to the crime scene since no murder weapon was found, his DNA was not found on the victims, and neither the bloody clothing or any other article found on Melly or the victims that linked him.
Crime scene investigators who testified about the crime scene and the manner the victims were killed said that the trajectory of the bullets was not from a drive-by as there were no fragments from glass or DNA, and it is strange that a drive-by did not hit the tires or rims of the car, but rather the victims were shot at a different location than claimed by YNW Bortlen.
In the meantime, Melly’s mother, Jamie King, reacted to the mistrial verdict claiming that her son was innocent and would be vindicated in a new trial.
“9 not guilty 3 guilty it was a mistrial my son will be home God is still working,” she wrote on Instagram.
A status hearing is set for July 28th to discuss the next stages of the Melly trial.
