YNW Melly To Face Retrial On Double Murder
YNW Melly’s double murder case is reportedly heading for a retrial.
According to WTVJ, the Broward County State Attorney’s office confirmed they will retry the case a second time and that both sides could refine their strategies.
A status hearing is scheduled for Friday morning (July 28) in Judge John Murphy’s courtroom, the news station reports.
The double murder trial of Melly, born Jamell Demons, ended late last week in a deadlocked jury. A unanimous verdict is required to convict or acquit a defendant charged with murder.
YNW Melly Murder Trial Ends in Deadlocked Jury with Retrial Likely
Judge Murphy had twice asked the jurors to keep deliberating after they said they were deadlocked. But the jury came back a third time without a different result.
In July, 2022, a Florida judge removed the death penalty as a possible sentence option for Melly. The rapper remains behind bars on double homicide charges.
Prosecutors say the rapper fatally shot his friends, 20-year-old Chris “YNW Juvy” Thomas Jr. and 21-year-old Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams, in October 2018.
Melly and a second man, YNW Bortlen (born Courtland Henry), are accused of killing the victims and then attempting to stage the crime scene to resemble a drive-by shooting. Melly pled not guilty to the first-degree murder charges in March 2019. He would then go on to address his arrest in a since-deleted Instagram post that same year.
Ballistics tests show the victims were shot from inside the Jeep, according to prosecutors. But defense lawyers point to the fact that a gun was never recovered and assert Melly had no apparent motive for the crime.
