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On the afternoon of June 18, 2018, Scott Barbieux was trying out the ATVs and dust bikes lined up outdoors the doorway of Reva Motorsports in Deerfield Beach. That’s when he noticed considered one of his favourite hip-hop artists, Plantation native XXXTentacion, stroll out of the dealership, Barbieux testified final week in a Broward County courtroom.
“‘Hey X, let me get a photograph,'” Barbieux recalled asking the rapper. “He simply ignored me and received in his automotive.”
XXXTentacion (actual title Jahseh Onfroy) tried to go away Reva in his BMW i8 sports activities automotive with Leonard Kerr, a household good friend, using shotgun. When a Dodge Journey blocked the BMW on the exit, Barbieux testified, he watched two masked males, one armed with a rifle and the opposite with a handgun, emerge from the SUV.
Kerr jumped out of the BMW and ran previous him, screaming, “They’re robbing X!” Barbieux acknowledged. He may see XXXTentacion “combating for his life” because the robber who was holding the rifle backed up. “Bam!” Barbieux stated, describing the primary of three or 4 gunshots he heard.
Barbieux was considered one of a number of eyewitnesses to testify final week within the trial of three males — Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, and Dedrick Williams — charged with murdering XXXTentacion that day in a botched theft that netted a Louis Vuitton satchel full of $50,000 in hundred-dollar payments that the 19-year-old rapper was holding. Jurors additionally heard from two crime-lab detectives who collected proof from numerous scenes tied to the murder and two ladies who had been near Williams.
Their testimony corroborates the account of Robert Allen, a fourth member of the theft crew who pleaded responsible in August for his position in XXXTentacion’s dying. Testimony from Allen, the prosecution’s star witness, stretched throughout 5 days following opening arguments earlier this month.
Allen acknowledged beneath oath that Boatwright carried a rifle to the theft and shot XXXTentacion and that Newsome, the opposite gunman, snatched the Vuitton bag. Williams was behind the wheel of the SUV, in response to Allen, who stated he refused to take part within the stickup owing to surveillance cameras he’d seen inside and out of doors Reva.
The trial is anticipated to final by March.
Eyewitness Accounts
Having briefly ducked for canopy, Barbieux testified that on February 14, he ran to the BMW and located XXXTentacion almost lifeless whereas the Dodge sped off. After shaking the 19-year-old sufferer’s shoulders, he stated, he snapped a photograph of the critically wounded rapper that he posted on his Snapchat a couple of minutes later.
When Broward County Assistant State Attorney Pascale Achille requested why he took the snapshot, Barbieux replied, “Because I used to be a giant fan of his, and I wished a photograph to keep in mind that eternally.”
Asked why he took a snapshot of the dying rapper, Barbieux replied, “Because I used to be a giant fan of his and I wished a photograph to keep in mind that eternally.”
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On February 16, Layla Can, Barbieux’s then-girlfriend who was with him at Reva, testified that she watched the Dodge pull in entrance of the BMW “fairly swiftly” and that the 2 armed males “jumped out aggressively.”
“They had been yelling, ‘Get out of the automotive!'” Can recalled. “I noticed them attain into the automotive. Both of them had been on the motive force’s aspect.”
Can stated she, too, ducked for canopy when she heard the gunshots. After the SUV took off, she adopted Barbieux to the BMW. Reva staff additionally approached the fallen rapper, and considered one of them checked his pulse and known as 911, Can stated, including, “I used to be in a state of shock.”
A day after Can testified, Reva gross sales rep Marco Rueda instructed jurors he was about 60 toes away when the theft transpired. “There was numerous struggling happening,” Rueda testified. “One of them came to visit to the passenger’s aspect when the door was open.”
After listening to the gunshots, Rueda watched the robbers pile into the Dodge and velocity off. XXXTentacion’s dying affected him, he added. “He was such a pleasant younger man,” Rueda stated. “He all the time got here in tremendous comfortable. That is the best way he appeared that day.”
Defendant’s Friends Testify
On February 14 and 15, the jury heard testimony from Tony Robinson, a Miramar resident who was a detailed good friend of Williams, and from Williams’ ex-girlfriend Tenell Carter. Both ladies corroborated Allen’s testimony concerning the occasions that led as much as the robbery-turned-homicide and its aftermath.
Robinson stated she didn’t have an intimate relationship with Williams and thought of him a brother. “We frolicked collectively,” she testified. “Our children play with one another. I might cook dinner, and he would come over.”
On June 17, 2018, a day earlier than the theft, Robinson testified, Williams requested her to hire a automotive for him by the car-rental app Turo. He instructed her that Allen would go along with her to choose up the rental the next day.
“The plan was to choose up Big Rob from his home, go to the financial institution, deposit the cash for the rental automotive, after which choose up the rental automotive,” she stated beneath oath. “I might be the one to choose up the automotive from the proprietor, after which we’d drive someplace so Big Rob may take the automotive.”
Robinson stated within the late afternoon of June 18, she received a name from Allen’s cellphone. It was Boatwright, who knowledgeable her they’d gotten into an accident within the Dodge. She stated Williams was along with her on the time, noting, “He was upset.”
She stayed residence whereas Williams drove to the scene of the accident in her automotive. Allen, Boatwright, Newsome, and Williams later confirmed up at her home collectively, Robinson acknowledged. “They had been arguing about who was going to be answerable for the damages,” she recounted. “[Williams] felt he should not need to pay for it since he wasn’t there when it occurred.”
When Achille requested whether or not Williams had instructed her that “it wasn’t imagined to go down like that,” Carter replied, “Yes ma’am.”
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Williams then handed her $1,000 in money, which she delivered to the Dodge’s proprietor. “They had been one-hundred-denomination payments,” Robinson stated. “And they had been all crispy.”
Tenell Carter, a preschool instructor who dated Williams for a 12 months and a half till they broke up shortly after XXXTentacion’s murder, testified that he instructed her he’d been current throughout the theft and homicide. When prosecutor Achille requested whether or not Williams had instructed her that “it wasn’t imagined to go down like that” and that he knew the shooter’s id, Carter replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
Carter additionally confirmed that after he was arrested, Williams persuaded her to submit a notarized affidavit to Judge Michael Usan, who’s presiding over the case, falsely stating that he was not behind the wheel the day XXXTentacion was murdered.