Jury selection continues in retrial of Gifford rapper Jamell Demons, known as YNW Melly

Prosecutors vetting jurors for the death penalty retrial of famed Gifford rapper Jamell Demons, known as YNW Melly, want to keep off the jury panel anyone who closely followed his trial in July that ended in a mistrial, court records show.

Jury selection for his retrial began Oct. 18 and continues through Dec. 15, according to a schedule issued by Broward County Circuit Judge John Murphy III, who ordered a mistrial on July 22 after a jury failed to reach a verdict following three days of deliberations.

A unanimous verdict is required to convict or acquit a defendant.

Demons and his childhood friend and recording partner Cortlen Henry, now both 24, have pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder with a firearm in the Oct. 26, 2018 shooting deaths of Anthony Williams, 21, and Christopher Thomas Jr., 19. The four men grew up together.

Williams, of Gifford, was known by the stage name YNW Sakchaser, and Thomas, of Fort Pierce, by the name YNW Juvy. Henry, of Gifford, was known as YNW Bortlen. Their stage names all include “YNW” because they belonged to the same hip-hop collective. It stands for “Young New Wave” or another phrase that includes a racial slur.

Prosecutors say Demons, after a late-night recording session, shot Thomas and Williams inside an SUV and he and Henry then tried to make it look like a drive-by shooting. Henry faces a maximum of life in prison if he is convicted during a separate trial scheduled for next year.

Demons, who was just rising in the hip-hop industry when the shootings occurred, faces the death penalty if convicted.

The arduous jury selection process kicked off amid a flurry of pretrial activity, including Murphy removing the state’s lead prosecutor and the filing of new charges that accuse Demons of witness tampering during his first trial.

Will pretrial publicity vex jury selection?

Citing extensive media coverage surrounding Demons, the state’s new lead prosecutor, Assistant State Attorney Alixandra Buckelew, filed papers Oct. 30 seeking to strike all jurors with "significant knowledge” of his previous trial.

Demons’ first trial was live streamed on numerous online platforms, including the Law & Crime Network, and was widely reported on news websites and on social media, Buckelew noted.

"Some jurors have informed the court that they have watched the trial and have done significant research on the case thus far," she wrote.

Buckelew in part argued that because the state is still determining what evidence will be presented during the retrial, any juror who followed Demons’ first trial or watched it live, should be excused from the jury pool.

"Due to the unknown,” she wrote, “having any jurors with significant knowledge on the case should be avoided at all costs."

Top prosecutor replaced

On Oct. 12, Murphy ordered lead prosecutor Kristine Bradley off the case after Demons’ attorneys claimed prosecutors didn’t reveal that the lead investigator, Miramar Police detective Mark Moretti, had been previously accused of being willing to lie as he gathered evidence.

The attorneys asked Murphy to remove the Broward State Attorney’s Office from the case and potentially dismiss the case entirely. The request came after Assistant State Attorney Michelle Boutros, who works for the Broward office, testified that she overheard Moretti ask a Broward County deputy to lie about being present at the Broward County courthouse on Oct. 12, 2022 when Moretti executed a search warrant outside his jurisdiction and forcibly seized a phone from Demons’ mother Jamie Demons-King as part of a witness tampering investigation.

Defense attorney James Benjamin said that information should have been turned over to the defense because they could have used it to discredit Moretti during Demons’ first murder trial.

Prosecutors countered that the exchange between Moretti and the deputy was a joke and noted that an attorney for Demons’ mother was present when her phone was taken and would have known the deputy wasn’t there.

Murphy recused Bradley in an abundance of caution. The judge didn’t find that Bradley’s integrity had been comprised but agreed that she couldn’t serve as a prosecutor on the case if the defense was planning to call her as a witness regarding the credibility of one of the investigators.

Witness tampering allegations

Prosecutors in early October charged Demons with seven new felonies related to making sure a key witness didn’t testify at his first murder trial. They include tampering with a witness in a capital felony; directing the activities of a criminal gang; two counts of solicitation to commit tampering; conspiracy to commit tampering; two counts of unlawful use of a two-way communication device

Demons is accused with Henry and Broward County Jail inmate Terrence Mathis of engaging in witness tampering between April 10 and July 22, records show.

Records show Henry was returned to the Broward County Jail after his pretrial release granted in 2021 was revoked when the state filed witness tampering charges against him.

In court filings, prosecutors said Demons is with the Bloods street gang. They claimed he used phone calls made by other jail inmates at his request and letters passed between them to get messages to Blood members on the streets. Those members successfully made sure a key witness didn’t testify, according to prosecutors.

Benjamin, Demons’ lead attorney, told The Associated Press the tampering charges “are clearly retaliation” after he and law partner Daniel Aaronson accused Broward County State Attorney Harold Pryor “and his underlings” of a coverup. He said Pryor, Bradley and others conspired to hide that Moretti had been accused by a prosecutor in their office of asking another law enforcement officer to lie in a related investigation.

The murders

According to prosecutors, Demons, Williams and Thomas were riding in a 2018 Jeep Compass driven by Henry when Demons fired the fatal shots inside the vehicle.

Defense attorneys have said that claim lacked credibility because Demons and the victims were close friends and recording partners.

After killing both men, prosecutors said Demons and Henry drove the bodies to an area near the Everglades, where they shot at the back and passenger sides of Henry’s Jeep from the outside to make it look like Williams and Thomas were victims of a drive-by shooting.

Prosecutors claimed ballistics tests showed the pair were shot from inside the Jeep. Defense lawyers focused on the fact that the gun was never recovered.

They also insisted that Demons had no apparent motive for the crime.

He had his breakout in 2017 and rose to fame with his song titled "Murder on my Mind" on his 2018 tape "I Am You."

Demons went on to work with Kanye West on “Mixed Personalities,” which was released in January 2019, a month before he was jailed on murder charges.

The trials

Jury selection for Demons’ first trial began April 10 and it took until June 12 to seat a panel of 12, plus alternates. The state presented testimony for 16 days and showed jurors more than 100 trial exhibits, records show.

Moretti on the stand spent several days testifying about evidence collected during an investigation, including cell phone and GPS data, social media posts and what investigators found in the bullet-riddled Jeep.

Demons did not testify, and his lawyers called just a single witness.

For his retrial, it’s unclear when prosecutors will begin calling witnesses. The state has asked to hold off on testimony until January to give new prosecutors assigned to the trial time to prepare.

In a flurry of pretrial motions, Demons’ lawyers are seeking to limit what evidence may be presented to jurors at his retrial. They hope to exclude cell phone data, emails and posts to Google and social media accounts, including Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter, the filings show.

The defense also wants to bar prosecutors from showing a promotional video about Demons released shortly after the murders.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Melissa E. Holsman is the legal affairs reporter for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers and is writer and co-host of "Uncertain Terms," a true-crime podcast. Reach her at melissa.holsman@tcpalm.com. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If not, become a subscriber to get the latest local news on the Treasure Coast.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Jury vetting underway in murder retrial of Gifford rapper YNW Melly