Hours earlier than they allegedly gunned down Miami rapper XXXTentacion on June 18, 2018, Robert Allen, Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, and Dedrick Williams deliberate a mission for that day.
“What space are we going to rob folks,” was the query, as Allen testified on February 8, his first day on the witness stand because the homicide trial of his three former cohorts commenced final week in a Broward County courtroom.
The 4 males, on the time of their early 20s, had been armed, Allen recollected. He, Newsome, and Williams carried revolvers. Boatwright was strapped with a .22-caliber rifle. But Williams wanted a masks. So they piled right into a rented black Dodge Journey SUV and headed to Reva Motorsports in Deerfield Beach, the place he might purchase one, Allen instructed jurors.
Williams was pulling into the motorcycle store’s parking zone when he seen XXXTentacion climbing out of his BMW sports activities automotive and strolling into Reva. He confirmed Allen, Boatwright, and Newsome an Instagram photograph of XXXTentacion alongside the identical BMW, Allen testified, including, “He wished to rob [XXXTentacion].”
Later that afternoon, surveillance video footage from Reva captured two masked males rising from the black Dodge, which was blocking the BMW as XXXTentacion pulled out of the parking zone. After a passenger and household good friend, Leonard Kerr, jumped out of the BMW, one of many gunmen shot XXXTentacion, as the opposite robber grabbed a Louis Vuitton satchel full of $50,000 in hundred-dollar payments.
Emergency personnel transported XXXTentacion (actual identify Jahseh Onfroy) to an area hospital, the place he was pronounced useless. At the time, the 20-year-old hip-hop artist was amongst an rising style of “emo” rappers gaining fame and notoriety — a meteoric profession rise New Times extensively lined from when the rapper emerged on the scene in 2016. When he died, XXX was going through felony prices of home violence and witness tampering ensuing from violent assaults alleged by his then-pregnant ex-girlfriend, Geneva Ayala.
The Drake Defense?
State prosecutors hope Allen’s testimony will persuade the jury that his confession corroborates a mountain of digital proof pointing to him, Boatwright, Newsome, and Williams as finishing up the botched robbery-turned-homicide.
“Robert Allen will let you know what the aim was and why they had been all collectively,” Broward Assistant State Attorney Pascale Achille instructed jurors throughout her opening assertion on February 6. “Their plan was to rob anyone that day, and so they had all of the issues in preparation for that.”
Allen is about to start his fourth day of testimony on February 13. Other witnesses scheduled to seem within the coming weeks embrace murder detectives; forensic and cellphone consultants; XXXTentacion’s mom, Cleopatra Bernard; and, probably, Canadian hip-hop megastar Drake.
Last week, Broward Judge Michael Usan, who’s presiding over the trial, signed an order compelling Drake to take a seat for a February 24 deposition by Williams’ protection lawyer, Mauricio Padilla. If Drake fails to conform, he’ll have to seem in Usan’s courtroom and clarify why.
Padilla has posited the speculation that murder investigators didn’t discover different attainable suspects with whom XXXTentacion allegedly had beef. In addition to Drake, Padilla’s witness listing contains rappers Tekashi 6ix9ine, Joe Budden, and members of Atlanta-based Migos: Offset, Quavo, and the late Takeoff, who was murdered in Houston final 12 months in an unrelated incident.
During his opening argument, Padilla labored his protection angle for the jury: “Do you suppose… any detective has ever requested Drake or anyone like that? No, they by no means did that.”
The trial is anticipated to increase into subsequent month.
Allen Turns on His Boys
For three days starting Wednesday, February 8, Allen was subjected to a methodical direct examination by Achille, whereas Padilla and Joseph Kimok, Boatwright’s protection lawyer, sought to undermine his credibility by getting him to confess his untruthfulness in earlier sworn statements to regulation enforcement.
Dressed in tan Broward County jail scrubs, his fingers and toes shackled, the 26-year-old Fort Lauderdale native offered his firsthand account of the day XXXTentacion died and its aftermath, together with what occurred to the loot. He primarily offered monosyllabic responses to the prosecutor and protection legal professionals.
And he typically responded in a monotone so low that Achille instructed him a number of occasions to boost his voice so all the courtroom might hear him. “Speak up, good and loud,” she admonished Allen earlier than she resumed questioning him on February 9.
When the legal professionals sidebarred with the choose, Allen would both look down or away, avoiding eye contact with Boatwright, Newsome, and Williams, who had been flanked by their protection workforce. In distinction to Allen, the three codefendants wore jackets and ties in the course of the first week of the trial. Their gaze homed in on their former good friend.
In August, Allen pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide and armed theft with a firearm. He agreed to testify towards his codefendants although he nonetheless faces the opportunity of a life sentence. On the stand final week, Allen admitted that he started cooperating with murder detectives inside hours of his seize in Dodge County, Georgia, on July 26, 2018.
“I inform them I do not suppose it’s a good suggestion. I knew it was an excellent likelihood we had been gonna be caught.”
Under questioning by Achille, Allen mentioned underneath oath that the four-man crew had no fleshed-out plan past ambushing XXXTentacion after he and Williams confirmed the rapper’s identification when the pair walked into Reva Motorsports to purchase the masks. Allen mentioned he bought chilly toes after they rejoined Boatwright and Newsome within the Dodge.
“I inform them I do not suppose it’s a good suggestion,” Allen testified. “I simply went in there, and I’m on digital camera. I knew it was an excellent likelihood we had been gonna be caught.”
Boatwright and Newsome additionally hesitated, however Williams appealed to their egos, Allen testified: “He requested them in the event that they scared.” He mentioned Boatwright and Newsome allegedly responded, “All proper, we’re gonna get him.”
Boatwright, Allen testified, donned a black masks and hoodie, and Newsome placed on his black masks and a black sweater. “I instructed them I wasn’t getting out as a result of I knew I used to be on digital camera,” Allen defined.
During the three-minute theft, Allen claimed, Boatwright fired two or three pictures that killed XXXTentacion, and Newsome snatched the bag. Afterward, Allen mentioned that Boatwright, Newsome, and Williams took $15,000 apiece, leaving him with $5,000. He instructed Achille he bought a paltry share as a result of “I wasn’t taking part within the theft… [Williams] truly mentioned I wasn’t going to get any cash in any respect.”
Under cross-examination by Kimok, Boatwright’s lawyer, Allen acknowledged that he’d offered conflicting sworn statements in 2018 and as just lately as June final 12 months. For instance, Allen conceded that in his first police interview shortly after his arrest, he’d denied that Newsome and Boatwright had been dwelling with him on the time of the homicide. “I used to be making an attempt to attenuate my involvement,” he mentioned.
“He Called Me a Police-Ass Nigga”
During Thursday’s courtroom proceedings, after the jury had recessed for lunch, Achille introduced in David Alvarez, a Broward sheriff’s deputy tasked with escorting Allen out and in of the courtroom. Alvarez knowledgeable Judge Usan that Newsome had shouted at Allen as he’d been delivered to the courtroom that morning.
Newsome yelled that Allen was “working with the po-po” and “working with the white man,” Alvarez mentioned, noting that the defendant was apparently conscious Allen was inside earshot although the cell the place he was being held was lined with a drape.
Over the objections of Newsome’s lawyer, George Reres, Usan allowed Achille to query Allen concerning the incident when the jury returned.
Allen pointed at Newsome from the witness stand, figuring out him as the one that’d yelled at him as he was escorted to the courtroom. “He known as me a police-ass nigga,” Allen testified. “He mentioned I work for the white man and that I’m a sellout.”
When Achille requested how he felt about what Newsome allegedly known as him, Allen mentioned, “Maybe it was a menace — a bit bit.”