Five years after XXXTentacion’s murder, three men found guilty in a month-long trial

Awaiting the verdict, three men accused of gunning down rapper XXXTentacion in 2018 glanced around the courtroom with blank faces as they heard 12 jurors decide their fate.

The jury, after eight days of deliberation leading up to Monday’s verdicts, sealed the futures of Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams and Trayvon Newsome: guilty on all charges. The three were convicted of first-degree murder and robbery with a deadly weapon and now face life behind bars at their April 6 sentencing.

As verdicts were read, Boatwright turned to the cameras — and XXXTentacion’s family — then blew a kiss with a smirk spread across his face.

XXXTentacion’s mother, Cleopatra Bernard, strolled out of the courtroom Monday, surrounded by a crowd of family members. She thanked her son’s fans and the thousands of people following the case.

“Justice was done,” Bernard said.

The slaying of an emerging rapper

XXXTentacion, whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy, was shot to death on June 18, 2018, as he was leaving the RIVA Motorsports dealership in Deerfield Beach. A dark-colored SUV blocked his BMW, police say, and two gunmen hopped out — robbing the rapper and firing a spray of bullets.

After the crime, police identified the two gunmen as Boatwright, 27, and Newsome, 24. They identified Williams, 26, as the getaway driver.

The focus of the robbery, police say, was a Louis Vuitton bag with $50,000 inside. The rapper had withdrawn the sum out of his account at a Bank of America branch in stacks of $100 bills.

In August, Robert Allen, the fourth suspect, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed robbery with a firearm. The 26-year-old, who is set to be sentenced the week after on April 12, testified against his co-defendants in the trial.

The prosecution centered its case on surveillance videos and phone records placing Boatwright, Williams and Newsome at the scene — and the flashy social media posts that brought them to detectives’ attention. Williams, who was caught on tape wearing orange slides, was tracked down through Instagram and Facebook posts where he sported the bright-colored sandals.

Defense attorneys, however, each opted for different strategies. Boatwright’s lawyer Joseph Kimok claimed that his client posted photos with stolen money but didn’t pull the trigger. Newsome’s attorney George Reres insisted that his client wasn’t at the crime scene. But Williams’ attorney Mauricio Padilla proposed the most elaborate theory: Broward detectives failed to investigate one of the biggest names in hip-hop — Drake.

The internet buzzed with unsubstantiated conspiracies linking Drake to XXXTentacion’s slaying due to social media beef between the internationally acclaimed artist and the South Florida rapper.

A month before his death, XXXTentacion referenced Drake in an ominous Instagram post: “if anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi.” The rapper later said his account was hacked. As it stands, no evidence has connected Drake to the murder other than him being added to the witness list in December, as first reported by the Miami Herald.

Padilla repeatedly attempted to get Drake to sit through a deposition in the case, an order that Judge Michael Usan threw out after the rapper’s lawyers argued his appearance would add “more layers of celebrity and notoriety to a tragic and unfortunate event.” Before closing arguments, Padilla filed a motion to recuse Usan and declare a mistrial, citing his inability to make his case without Drake’s testimony.

Evidence at the forefront

During closing arguments on March 6, prosecutor Pascale Achille dug into a black trash bag and pulled out items wrapped in a clear plastic. She strolled over to the jury, allowing them to glance at what she held: the rapper’s bullet-ridden jean jacket and Thrasher hoodie. Then, the orange slides that led detectives to Williams.

She pressed the clicker in her hand as she broke down the evidence and testimony the state presented, using maps, videos and even eight minutes of silence to show the crime was committed — and planned.

“If not them, then who?” she said. “Because there isn’t any DNA.”

None of the defendants, Achille argued, would have been able to commit the crime alone. She pointed to Robert Allen’s testimony — despite the defense’s claim that he was an unreliable witness.

“Plans that are hatched in hell do not have angels for witnesses,” she said.

Achille grabbed a beige Russian nesting doll, laying out the various pieces in front of the jury. She explained how jurors could opt to find Boatwright, Newsome and Williams guilty of a lower offense like second-degree murder or manslaughter.

“I can stand up here for hours and go point by point,” Achille said. “These questions do not alleviate the hard factual evidence that does point to these three codefendants.”

Newsome, according to attorney George Reres, may have posed with money in a “youthful and stupid fashion” but that doesn’t make him a murderer.

Reres pointed to the lack of DNA evidence, calling it a “crucial” weapon for the defense.

“You would expect to find something from the real second gunman somewhere in all this evidence to link him to this crime,” Reres said. “No DNA in the car. No DNA on the necklace.”

The main evidence against Newsome, Reres said, was Allen’s testimony. He claimed that Allen lied and “changed his testimony to fit what the state wanted him to say” to reduce his time behind bars.

“All the physical evidence points against what Robert Allen said about Trayvon Newsome,” Reres said. “[The state] had nothing against Trayvon Newsome without it.”

Mauricio Padilla, representing Williams, lugged a white box wrapped in a red ribbon into the courtroom on March 6. He removed the top, unveiling a dented, stained and taped-up box underneath.

For Padilla, the stunt represented the state’s flawed case.

In his speech to jurors, Padilla combed through the list of witnesses, raising issues with each one’s testimony. He focused most of his rant on Allen, whom he painted as a career criminal with a lot to gain from lying about his co-defendants.

“They’re asking you to convict somebody based on that guy’s testimony,” he said.

Aside from lambasting the state’s evidence, Padilla criticized Broward detectives’ investigation, alleging that they didn’t explore theories that conflicted with their narrative. He mentioned Drake, who he said was named in tips to investigators but wasn’t properly looked into.

“It highlights tunnel vision,” he said. “It really affected the investigation of this case.”

During closing arguments on March 7, Boatwright’s attorney Joseph Kimok questioned the state’s evidence, which was found days and weeks after the crime.

“They want you to focus on bullets and masks that had nothing to do with this murder,” he said. “That evidence says Michael did not do this.”

The state said there was no DNA, but there was foreign DNA under XXXTentacion’s fingernails, Kimok said. Neither the rapper’s jean jacket or BMW, he said, was swabbed for DNA.

“Someone else left that DNA underneath Jahseh Onfroy’s fingernails,” Kimok said. “Someone else’s DNA is on his neck. Someone else’s DNA is on the necklace.”

Kimok, too, cast doubt on Allen’s testimony.

“He gets two things out of his testimony,” Kimok said. “He gets a chance to go home and he gets to protect the real [perpetrators].”

READ MORE: Minute by minute, how cops tracked the four suspects in rapper XXXTentacion’s murder

XXXTentacion, who died at 20, came into the public eye in 2017 with his single “Look At Me!,” which was posted to the music website SoundCloud.

In a statement, Padilla, who represented Williams, said he respected the jury’s decision but also believed his client didn’t receive a fair trial. He pointed to the court striking down orders to require a “crucial defense witness” to sit through a deposition.

“It is obvious from the days the jury was deliberating that they had questions, and I only wish I would have been able to properly defend my client,” Padilla said.

For prosecutor Achille, justice was served.

“We’re just happy that the family has been able to be here and see justice done,” Achille said after the verdict. “They got some closure today.”