Update 4:50 p.m.: The first day of jury deliberations within the XXXTentacion homicide trial ended with no verdict. Jurors will reconvene at 11 a.m. tomorrow (Friday, March 10).
Taken as a complete, the forensic proof and witness testimony pointing to Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, and Dedrick Williams because the crew that ambushed and killed South Florida rapper XXXTentacion (actual identify Jahseh Onfroy) almost six years in the past seems damning.
Defense legal professionals representing the trio of defendants are banking {that a} Broward County jury may puncture some hazy elements of state prosecutors’ seemingly hermetic case and discover their purchasers not responsible of murdering XXXTentacion.
The 20-year-old hip-hop artist died on June 18, 2018, hours after he was shot 3 times by one among two masked armed robbers whereas leaving Reva Motorsports, a leisure car store in Deerfield Beach. The gunmen jumped out of the passenger’s facet of a Dodge Journey SUV that had blocked XXXTentacion’s BMW i8 sports activities automobile as he pulled out of the Reva parking zone. The robbers took off with the rapper’s Louis Vuitton satchel full of $50,000 in hundred-dollar payments.
Today (March 9), the jury will start deliberating the fates of Boatwright, Newsome, and Williams, every of whom faces a life sentence if convicted of first-degree homicide. Robert Allen, a fourth robber, testified in opposition to his former mates as a situation of his responsible plea final summer season. He fingered Williams because the getaway driver, Boatwright because the shooter, and Newsome because the second gunman.
After a day without work on Monday, March 6, jurors sat by way of two days of dramatic closing arguments by Broward Assistant State Attorney Pascale Achille and legal protection attorneys Joseph Kimok, George Reres, and Mauricio Padilla.
On Tuesday, Achille stopped halfway by way of her summation. She remained silent for eight minutes and 35 seconds to reveal how lengthy Allen, Boatwright, Newsome, and Williams sat outdoors Reva ready for XXXTentacion to exit the shop after confirming that he’d been inside looking for a motorcycle.
“During that point, Mr. Onfroy is inside Reva,” Achille mentioned when a timer on her laptop computer completed counting down. “He would not have a clue that any of that is about to occur — that he has solely eight minutes and 35 seconds left to reside.”
Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams, and Trayvon Newsome are on trial for the 2018 homicide of XXXTentacion.
Broward Sheriff’s Office mug photographs
Armed and on a mission to rob those that day, the quartet made the premeditated choice to kill XXXTentacion if he confirmed any resistance, Achille mentioned.
“They deliberate and coordinated an assault on the sufferer,” Achille informed the jury. “Inside the Dodge Journey, that they had every little thing they wanted to rob and kill the sufferer. There have been masks. There have been firearms. They have been able to go.”
Near the tip of his closing argument, Padilla, Williams’ lawyer, unveiled a clear white field with a pink ribbon and bow to underscore how John Curcio, the murder detective for Broward County Sheriff’s Office who led the homicide probe, had neatly wrapped a rushed investigation that did not fastidiously rule out different potential suspects and individuals of curiosity, together with Canadian rapper Drake, with whom XXXTentacion allegedly was feuding.
“This good and neat answer makes its strategy to the Broward State Attorney’s Office,” Padilla mentioned. “[Achille] needs you to just accept one thing that’s good — and it’s not like that.”
Then Padilla eliminated the field to disclose a smaller, tattered white field with a torn pink ribbon. “That is what a case seems to be like when it’s primarily based on lies, primarily based on perjured testimony, [and] when detectives fail to observe up on leads.”
Padilla additionally mocked among the prosecution’s witnesses, together with Scott Barbieux, an XXXTentacion superfan who was visiting Reva and witnessed the capturing. Barbieux admitted to having snapped photographs of the dying rapper and importing one of many photos to his Snapchat account.
Padilla zeroed in on Barbieux’s goth look, commenting that the witness appeared like he’d stepped out of the pages of the best-selling Anne Rice novel Interview with a Vampire. The lawyer additionally recommended that Barbieux was inebriated when he took the stand. “I requested him if he was sober,” Padilla mentioned. “He did not seem like it to me.”
Reres, Newsome’s lawyer, and Kimok, Boatwright’s legal professional, argued that the bodily proof proved their purchasers weren’t on the crime scene when the theft and murder occurred. For occasion, they each homed in on a necklace XXXTentacion wore on June 18, 2018, that did not include DNA linked to both defendant.
“You could not discover a higher object to get DNA on as a result of it’ll scrape proper off,” Reres mentioned. “The absence of DNA on that necklace is essential for the protection.”
Kimok claimed that forensic investigators discovered DNA from two people on XXXTentacion’s fingernails and neck. One of them was the rapper, and the opposite was from an unknown individual, Kimok mentioned. “Someone else left that DNA,” Kimok added.
Kimok, Padilla, and Reres additionally took turns assailing Robert Allen’s credibility. Reres reminded the jury that Allen admitted underneath oath to committing fraud and has 12 prior felony convictions. “What is fraud?” Reres requested rhetorically. “It’s a scientific sample of mendacity to reap the benefits of folks and steal issues from them.”
After the protection legal professionals wrapped up their concluding statements, it was Achille’s flip for one last rebuttal. She took the chance to notice that the protection averted speaking about the digital path from two iPhones that allegedly belonged to Williams and Boatwright, which indicated that the units have been at Reva the complete time XXXTentacion was there, together with throughout the capturing.
Achille acknowledged that Allen is a snitch hoping for a lenient sentence in alternate for his testimony.
“Plans hatched in Hell wouldn’t have angels for witnesses,” she mentioned. “I did not attempt to costume him up as an angel. Quite the alternative. He was wearing custody. He got here in [wearing] shackles.”
But she reminded jurors that Allen’s testimony backs up the bodily proof offered throughout the trial. “There is a lot proof apart from Robert Allen that you could depend on that’s credible,” the prosecutor mentioned. “You can use the proof you’ve gotten seen on this case to fact-check him.”
The jury commences deliberations at 10:30 a.m. at the moment (Thursday, March 9).