Florida judge warns rapper Drake to show up for deposition in XXXTentacion murder trial
A Florida judge is threatening rapper Drake with a contempt charge if he doesn’t show up for a deposition in the trial of three men accused of murdering XXXTentacion, a South Florida rapper who was an emerging star until his death in 2018.
Drake, one of the biggest names in hip-hop music, has already missed one date for a deposition.
On Thursday, Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Drake Graham, was ordered by Broward Circuit Judge Michael Usan to give a deposition through Zoom on Feb. 24, court records showed.
Drake did not appear for a scheduled deposition on Jan. 27, according to a court order, and if he again fails to show, he will have to go to the courtroom and possibly face a contempt of court charge, which could lead to jail time or fines.
Three men — Dedrick Williams, Michael Boatwright and Trayvon Newsome — are currently on trial for the robbery and murder of Jahseh Onfroy, aka XXXTentacion.
As it stands, no evidence has been presented that connects Drake to the murder other than him being added to the witness list in December, as first reported by the Miami Herald.
But Williams’ defense lawyer, Mauricio Padilla, was the first to point to some brief social media exchanges between the two rappers, which generated unsubstantiated conspiracy theories suggesting Drake could have had a beef with the South Florida rapper.
Social media buzzed with this idea after XXXTentacion posted on Instagram a month before he died, “if anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” which is Drake’s social-media handle. XXXTentacion later claimed his account was hacked.
Nevertheless Padilla entered Graham onto the defense witness list and went as far as to mention the Instagram post in his opening statements on Tuesday, the Rolling Stone reported.
“Do you think … any detective has ever asked Drake or anybody like that?” he said. “No, they never did that.”
Padilla could not be reached for comment. Nor could legal representatives for Drake.
This story was originally published February 10, 2023 at 6:57 PM.
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