Jurors within the trial of three men accused of murdering rising rap star XXXTentacion concluded their fourth day of deliberations Monday by reviewing nearly 1,200 textual content messages and several other movies and pictures seized from two of their cellphones.
A number of the movies and pictures confirmed the defendants flashing fistfuls of $100 payments hours after the June 18, 2018, shooting of XXXTentacion outside a suburban Fort Lauderdale bike dealership. He was killed by two armed robbers who stole $50,000 he was carrying in a Louis Vuitton bag.
There was additionally a photograph of a narrative from a information web site in regards to the taking pictures, pictures from buying and courting apps, an apparently random photograph of then-first woman Melania Trump, movies of 1 defendant in a pedicab with a girl and a Father’s Day greeting.
The jurors made their request within the afternoon, asking to see the info from the telephones of alleged shooter Michael Boatwright, 28, and the accused getaway driver and ringleader Dedrick Williams, 26, from the day earlier than and day of the taking pictures.
Williams despatched and acquired greater than 950 textual content messages throughout that point and Boatwright had greater than 200. Jurors needed to crowd close to a projection display screen on the entrance of the courtroom to learn them; they may not be learn from the gallery.
The jurors didn’t ask for any knowledge from the telephones of alleged second gunman Trayvon Newsome, 24, or alleged co-conspirator Robert Allen, 26. Allen testified in opposition to his former pals after pleading responsible final 12 months to second-degree homicide.
Boatwright, Williams and Newsome are charged with first-degree homicide and armed theft and face obligatory life sentences if convicted. Prosecutors didn’t search the demise penalty. The jurors have deliberated about 15 hours since getting the case late Wednesday on the finish of four-weeks of testimony. Deliberations will resume Tuesday.
XXXTentacion, whose actual title was Jahseh Onfroy, had simply left Riva Motorsports, the place he had been taking a look at bikes to buy, when his BMW was blocked by an SUV that swerved in entrance.
Surveillance video confirmed that two masked gunmen emerged and confronted the 20-year-old rapper on the driver’s window, and one shot him repeatedly. They then grabbed the bag with the cash, acquired again into the SUV and sped away. The pal was not harmed.
Allen testified that the boys set out that day to commit robberies and went to the bike store to purchase Williams a masks. There they noticed the rapper and determined to make him their goal. Allen and Williams went contained in the store to verify it was him.
They then went again to the SUV that they had rented, waited for XXXTentacion to emerge and ambushed him, in line with testimony. Prosecutors mentioned surveillance video from the dealership, cellphone knowledge and the movies of the boys flashing cash ties them to the taking pictures.
The boys’s attorneys mentioned Allen is mendacity and that their DNA was not discovered on the artist. Attorneys for a few of the males mentioned that whereas the money-flashing movies had been “silly,” they don’t show their purchasers had been truly concerned within the taking pictures and theft.
The rapper, who pronounced his title “Ex ex ex ten-ta-see-YAWN,” was a platinum-selling rising star who tackled points together with prejudice and melancholy in his songs. He additionally drew criticism over dangerous habits and a number of arrests, together with costs that he severely beat and abused his girlfriend.
