YNW Melly, awaiting murder trial, is asking to be released from jail — again
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The double murder trial of rapper YNW Melly
The double murder trial of rapper YNW Melly, whose legal name is Jamell Demons, has had many twists and turns since the South Florida artist was accused of killing his childhood best friends Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. in 2019.
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YNW Melly’s new attorneys are trying to get the rapper out of jail pending his trial, citing the “emergence of additional evidence not previously considered.”
In documents filed in court Wednesday evening, attorneys Carey Haughwout and Drew Findling argued Melly is entitled to an evidentiary hearing for bond due to a “change in circumstances”— the new evidence. Haughwout and Findling, however, didn’t detail what the evidence entailed.
Broward Circuit Court Judge Martin Fein could schedule an Arthur hearing, which allows courts to consider setting bonds for defendants charged with crimes that aren’t usually eligible for bail. As of Thursday, a hearing had not been set.
Wednesday marked the rapper’s fourth bid seeking to be released from jail. All previous requests were denied.
Melly has been locked up in Broward since 2019.
In recent years, he has had no contact with other inmates as well as no visitation or phone calls from family, the filing says.
“For almost a decade of his young adulthood, Mr. Demons has endured flagrantly restrictive, dehumanizing conditions in pretrial detention...” the attorneys said in the document.
Melly, 26, whose real name is Jamell Demons, is accused of gunning down his childhood friends Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. in a drive-by cover-up after spending the night of Oct. 26, 2018, at a Fort Lauderdale recording studio. Williams and Thomas, both aspiring rappers with the YNW collective, were known as YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy, respectively.
His trial for the double murder is set for 2027.
The “Murder on My Mind” artist was also charged with witness tampering, although those charges were ultimately dropped. Melly was accused of colluding with co-defendant Cortlen Henry and fellow inmate Terrence Mathis to keep his ex-girlfriend from testifying in his double-murder case.
READ MORE: YNW Melly’s witness-tampering charges dropped. Rapper still faces murder trial
Last September, Henry reached a plea deal with prosecutors where they dropped the two murder charges against him. Henry, 26, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of accessory after the fact and witness tampering.
READ MORE: YNW Melly’s confidant strikes plea deal in double murder case. Will he testify?
In the motion, the rapper’s legal team also pointed out how the Fourth District Court of Appeal agreed that the former judge in Melly’s double murder case did not abuse his discretion when he threw out weeks of digital evidence obtained from a broad warrant.
The evidence — mostly messages extracted from Melly’s cellphone, email addresses and social-media accounts — will not be allowed in the rapper’s retrial after the appellate court’s ruling. In 2023, former Broward Circuit Court Judge John Murphy limited the digital evidence admitted into the retrial to the day of and following the murders.
READ MORE: Appeals court rules on blocked evidence in YNW Melly case. What did they decide?
Melly, the filing says, has significant ties to Florida and would like to “continue his previous employment,” if released from jail on house arrest. He is also willing to hire private security to “alleviate concerns as to the risk of flight.”
Melly’s request will likely be strongly opposed by prosecutors. Williams’ and Thomas’ families had previously voiced concerns with the rapper receiving a bond.
In another motion filed on March 16, Haughwout and Findling asked Fein to split Melly’s trial into two proceedings. The first would focus on the murders, and the second on the gang enhancement prosecutors are seeking to get a heftier sentence.
“Any evidence purporting to show that Demons is a member of a criminal street gang would eviscerate his right to a fair determination of his innocence or guilt...” the filing says.
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