All Episodes
Previous Next
June 20, 2023 - MyronGainesX
01:36:12
Fed Explains YNW Melly Murder Trial
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
All right.
What's up, guys?
We're doing something a little bit different.
This is the audible, audible.
All right.
So, pretty much, guys, I'm going to go ahead and pull up this Melly trial that's going right now.
They have an FBI agent actually testifying right now.
And this FBI agent specializes in cell phone location data.
So, I'm going to go ahead and start reacting to this thing right now while it's live.
Let's see what happens.
All right.
Let's say I know this impromptu, you're probably like, What's going on here?
So, y'all want to melly?
Let's do it live: white-collar crimes, event public corruption, crimes against children, terrorism.
Have any work cases where you've been called upon to determine the location of a cell phone?
Yes, come in.
For the 137 cases that I've helped with, the vast majority of those have to do with location, sort of location of the phone.
How do you want the opportunity to do it?
We do it live.
We do it live, guys.
We do it live.
Let's follow in.
I'm about to do an IG story.
We live now.
Let's watch this baby.
Historical call data reconstruction.
I'm going to break down for y'all what's going on here in a little bit.
Yes.
And how do you do that?
Well, as we mentioned, sort of during the I was talking about the train-up, if it's a situation, a case where we're trying to find someone who we believe is in possession and you do an analysis and you say, I think we need to go to this house and go there, and the person and the phone are there.
That's validation.
If you have a case where we have some sort of other evidence that corroborates it, like we have a crimes against children case, and there's metadata on media that was produced at a specific location, we have sell site that says, Okay, we know this something was produced here, and here's what the cell site looks like that corroborates it.
So, when you say metadata, can you explain what that is?
Yeah, that's outside of what I do with CAS, but that would be something that would be in a media file, perhaps, that somebody else is if you extract the file from using a physical extraction device or computer or some other device.
Sometimes there's metadata embedded within the image or video or whatever that will tell you different things, such as when.
All right, just so you guys know, real quick for some of you guys that are piling in right now, and I'll give you all a reminder real quick.
Uh, I am reacting right now to the YW Melly case.
As you guys know, he's on trial right now, live and uh, down here in South Florida for murder.
The person that's on the stand right now is an FBI agent that specializes in cell phone location data.
Okay, so um, yeah, we're just gonna pause this as needed, break things down for y'all.
But this is an FBI agent that's testifying right now to cell phone location data because he had done probably the forensics for that case.
So, uh, let's get back into it.
Hmm, I think they're uh, what's going on here?
Something's going on.
I'm gonna refresh.
They messed up over here at Lawn Crime Network, probably.
Hmm.
All right.
So, I think they had a camera issue.
Yeah, they're having technical difficulties.
I'm not surprised.
This is, you know, this is the state here, guys.
You know, they're always going to have mess-ups, etc.
But, but, yeah, so while they get this stuff fixed up, so basically, guys, I went, I was at the chiropractor, right?
And I saw that an FBI agent took the stand to talk about the cell phone stuff.
And I was like, you know what, bro?
Let's go live right now.
Like, this is too good to not cover.
But as you guys know, give y'all a quick little summary of what went down so far.
They've had a couple of people come up and testify.
Mellie's girlfriend's mom has testified where, you know, she wasn't cooperating so much with the prosecution.
They had some of the forensic guys that went ahead and analyzed the vehicle, testify.
I think right before this, they had a detective testify.
And right now, they got an FBI agent testifying that specializes in cell phone location data, which is very important because as you guys know, this case is heavily reliant upon the cell phone location data on Melly's phone.
Just to give you guys a quick little recap of the case, Melly's on trial right now for the double homicide of his two friends.
The friends were killed in a rural area in Miramar, Florida, which is about 30, 40 minutes from here down here in Miami, up in Broward County.
And Melly and his friend, YW Bortland, okay, aka Cortland Henry, they alleged that they had been shot during a drive-by shooting.
However, the bullets are on the right side of the vehicle, but the bullet trajectory and the forensics show that the people were wounded from their left.
Okay.
And I'll show you real quick, guys, here, the vehicle assortment of how they had this.
Give me one second here.
doing this on the fly guys we do it live so um let me see if i can pick this okay so bam so you see here right guys um this is how they were seated in the vehicle right if i can enlarge this thing let me just all right so melly was in the back left seat right here All right.
This is Wynne W. Bortland.
He was in the driver's seat.
Then you got Zach Chaser, and I think this guy's name is Chris down here.
But so the bullet, the bullets, right, for the vehicle, when the police showed up on when the police looked at the car, the bullets were all on the right-hand side of the vehicle like this, none on the left-hand side.
However, the two victims' wounds were where?
On their left, which means they were shot from this direction.
Okay.
So pretty much the forensics has proven that the fatal gunshot wounds came from inside the vehicle from the left-hand side based on the wounds and based on the stippling.
Okay.
What is stipling?
Stipling, guys, is when you have burn marks on you from close range, from a firearm being shot at you close range.
Okay.
It creates like a burn and some of that gunshot residue, et cetera, gets on you when it hits the skin from a close distance.
So there was cycling on both of these individuals, and it was very obvious that they had been shot from their left, not from their right, as Melly and Bortland tried to say from a drive-by shooting.
Okay.
Now, Melly, during the whole time, had his cell phone with him.
And with the cell phone, the police were able to pretty much pinpoint his location of where he was the whole time, which contradicted what he had told the police before.
You know, he had said that he had driven with another friend to another location, but the cell phone data showed that that was not true, guys.
All right.
So, okay.
So, right now, Brendan Collins, FBI special agent, he is the one that's testifying right now.
So, let's go back to the trial.
And he specializes in cell phone location data.
If you're being asked to do like a location analysis, in other words, to the case involves trying to determine where a particular device was at a certain point in time, you're the three things that you need.
First, you need the records for that particular device.
That will say that it'll look at the initial records, like a call detail record, for instance, will sort of look like a build-in statement that you might get a phone call.
We'll say, you know, this state of time, this phone number, twice this call, to this other number, et cetera.
Etc.
We'll also have additional information.
It will say a cell tower that the phone connected to when it made that call.
So you need that record without the device.
You also need a record of tower locations that says, okay, the tower the phone connected to is located at this particular point on earth.
Put those two things together and do some sort of mapping software and plot it.
And then it will give you a general area of where the device was at the time that it connected to that tower.
So you said device.
Can you testify a specific person within a specific area?
No.
Why not?
Because the records I have are just about devices.
So there are limitations to your testimony.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I'm talking about devices, not people.
Have you received any specialized training to become an agent that does CAST?
What is that?
QD cast or device is pretty extensive.
There's several stages of the certification process that's broken into.
The first, I started my initial training in 2017, the first basic training, the vast basic course.
That's a two or three day course where agents and officers from are.
All right, just so you guys know, the reason why the prosecutor is asking them these questions, this is what you call direct examination.
He's a government witness, or in this case, a state witness.
So the prosecutor is asking him questions to understand his training and experience, why he's qualified to speak on this.
He's being brought in right now as a subject matter expert on this trial.
He's not necessarily the investigating case detective in this, but the FBI was brought in to help analyze the phone location data and having a subject expert witness a lot of times helps with explaining how this all works.
Local state or other federal agencies are exposed to what cellular analysis is and how to do it at the basic level.
Do you use the past work in your day-to-day cases before you became a supervisor?
Yes.
Yes.
And so at the time that he did this phone stuff, guys, he was a regular agent, but now he's a GS-14, which means he's a supervisor.
He doesn't carry a case anymore.
But since he was involved back in 2018, remember, guys, this was almost five years ago.
He's a supervisor now, which means he does not carry cases.
required assignment to go to the cast team?
Oh, no, no, no.
You're not, but there's a lot more training than just that two-day thing.
Is that okay?
Oh, well, let's start with to do that first two-day training.
Yeah, so the first-Is that mandatory?
Yes.
To go on past that, is that something you have to apply for?
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay.
Does he explain after that first initial training what happens?
What's the next level of training you can see?
So the next course is called the advanced course.
It's a week-long course.
And that's just a more in-depth dive into each of the networks.
So specifically, what are the weaknesses of, say, Verizon, or T-Mobile, AQT, when it was a standalone provider, what their records look like, what are the weaknesses of their, the way their network's designed, et cetera.
After the advanced course, then we'd have a sort of test.
It's like a week-long.
What I went through was a mix of part in the classroom and part in the field, where it's all scenario-based.
So, for instance, you'd be like a kid back in a scenario.
Like, hey, this child was abducted.
Would be your job as the passive going through to try and use the records to develop the search locations.
And I think that we need to go here to try and recover the child.
So you could portion the classroom, you could portion the real world, where they have test rooms set up at different locations, and you validate the results right there.
So you either find the, you know, the person, or you wouldn't.
And it didn't either pass or fail.
So I passed, and I was allowed to continue to the certification course, which is a four-week course.
And again, I know, guys, this might be redundant or boring or whatever, but he's explaining all this to show that he's qualified to what he's about to testify later.
He's basically laying the foundation to let the jury know, let the audience know that he is qualified because he's probably going to go ahead and give testimony to verify the location data.
And this is extremely important for the prosecution, guys, because the prosecution needs to link Mellie to the murder.
So far right now in this trial, they've shown, you know, wound patterns.
They've shown shootings.
They've shown that they were basically shot in the vehicle, but they haven't been able to effectively link Mellie, right, to the shooting because there's plausible deniability.
Like, oh, we don't know if Mellie was the one that actually shot him because we don't have the murder weapon, et cetera.
So what they're going to do, right, with this witness more than likely in my estimation is they're going to go ahead and use this FBI agent who's an expert with cell location data to prove that Mellie was in fact at the scene at the time of the crime and the shooting when his friends were murdered in that rural area in Miramar, Florida.
We have representatives from all the major cell phone providers in the U.S., both their law enforcement relations and records custodians, personnel.
We talked about these are the types of records that we keep in our piece of record between our specific company.
We also bring in personnel from there, the network engineers, so the people who build the network, who design it.
We go to infrastructures, the Sprint Work Operations Center, where they're able to see the management of the whole network across the country, et cetera.
And then at the end of that, it's a test, and you either pass, are certified, or you help them.
Okay.
So Special Agent Collins, are you certified in CAST analysis?
Yes.
How long have you held that certification for?
I got certified in September of 2018.
Is there a continuing education or recertification that's required?
Yes.
So he got certified in September 2018.
The Mellie murder ended up going down, what, guys, in October?
And I don't think they arrested Mellie until around February 2019.
So he had had his certification for a few months, probably by the time they brought him the phones and got them involved, et cetera.
You can have certification every year.
You can attend a recertification course.
Okay.
Is all of the training specifically from the FDF?
No.
What other agencies and, I guess, companies do the training for them?
Yes.
We have partnerships.
Or not partnerships, but we'll bring in educators from a lot of different companies.
So, obviously, the different telecommunications companies are critical.
So we have them come to the recertification conference every year.
We've had a range of other people.
We've had Apple, Qualcomm, Oracle, people in the field of GPS, cell engineering, vehicles.
for vehicle telemedics i mean anybody who's still involved in that ecosystem okay so you mentioned apple qualcom what are those uh those are different manufacturers is there also specific as to cellular technology and how it works training on that terms of being a cast certification.
After recertification?
Yes.
Yes.
How long have you been specializing in call detail records?
I'm going to give a copy of the order that was discussed about the report that was done by Judge Siegel.
All right, so I'm going to fast forward to make sure that we're current here.
We are going to object to the admissibility of the caps report.
We have situated to his testimony after deposing him.
And then I will also bring forward because she's trying to bring in three different cast reports when we had imposed agent columns.
We only had to post it as one cast report.
We had extensive conversations about whether the state would be bringing in the additional cast reports.
We had agreed at that time if they were going to bring in those reports, she would let us know and we would depose him again.
That never happened.
We were always told it would be the one report of the two phone numbers.
And which we are objecting to the admissibility of those reports based on hearsay.
Also, they are misleading.
And also the information in those reports have not been properly validated by an engineer.
Okay, so as of April 4th, 2022, what report was in existence as far as special agent collins?
So the first one that was with regards to Anthony Williams' cell phone, as well as Ms. I'll give you guys an explanation of what's going on here in a second.
The other ones were generated in May of 2022 and immediately turned over to defense counsel.
And I have a very different recollection of that.
This was listed at the same time as Mr. Zeller that we just had.
So there was never any additional office request to depose this witness.
But Agent Collins has been available for the last however long if they chose to do so.
And Judge, I would just for the record making an objection to her characterizing that particular phone that is actually right of the screen came to have Mr. Collins.
I don't believe that that's kind of salary.
Thank you.
So what is the report?
Judge Reef, I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you said.
I asked for the report.
I need to know what the report says.
I'm not familiar with it.
Okay, sure.
So they're all substantial.
So as you guys can see, Melly's over here on the left-hand side.
This is the prosecutor right here in the green, guys.
She's the one that's trying the case, right?
She's the lead prosecutor on this.
This is probably either another prosecutor or maybe an aide.
And then you got these three individuals right here are Melly's lawyers.
So what they're basically trying to do right now, guys, is they're trying to challenge this phone location data stuff.
And I'm not surprised they are because this is damn critical evidence for the prosecution's case because that's what effectively puts Melly at the crime scene.
to the characterization of that it's Mr. Gainesville and Mr. Lincoln's phone actually.
And yes, guys, this trial is live right now as we speak up in, I think they're doing this trial in Fort Lauderdale, Broward County, so about 40 minutes from here in Miami.
You can see the gallery of all the people packed courthouse here.
Well, for obvious reasons, right?
On this side, I think it's probably Melly's supporters and family, right?
Look at this guy looking at the camera.
He's like, hey, what the hell are y'all looking at?
So this is probably family, friends, fans, et cetera.
And then more than likely on the other side is the family, is the family of the victim.
So this right here is probably melody supporters on this side.
And for those of you that are joining us right now on the stand, they have an FBI special agent that specializes in phone location data guys.
That is the expert witness that they have on the stand right now.
We're, I think, in day five of the trial, if I'm not mistaken.
And there's been a couple people that have hit the stand so far.
But right now, what the prosecution is focusing on is effectively tying Melly to the murder, putting him at the scene of the crime, because all they've done at this point is show that the individuals are murdered.
They were shot on the left side.
There was stipling.
The gunshots definitely came from inside the vehicle, etc., etc.
They saw the surveillance footage as well, which I'll pull up that for you guys as well right now while we wait for these people to get this going.
And this is how court is, guys.
It's boring a lot of the times like this.
When you're doing trial, etc., you know what I mean?
You're going back and forth, you know, making sure everything is right and everything else like that.
So, yeah, it's not going to be super exciting all the time.
But while we wait for these lawyers to get their shit together, as you can see, here's the FBI agent right here on the stand, right?
He's under oath, so he's obviously going to give his testimony as an expert with phone location data.
But the defense right now is trying to challenge him because this evidence right here that they're going to talk about is critical to the case because it puts Melly at the scene.
And what it means as to the location of the cellular devices based on the records, putting all gun as a product of the accuracy of the records and the fact that the cell phone communicates in a consistent way based on the laws of physics with a cell phone telling them here it talks about the
phone 772-713-9807 T-Mobile says Jamel Dennis.
This 954-248-9081 T-Mobile Anthony Williams.
And it has the date of the report being May 12, 2022.
Yes, Your Honor.
So this report date is after the order.
It is.
That is the second, it's the same one.
It was all done at the same time, I believe, if I'm not mistaken.
There was a typo defensive finish on the spelling of the defendant's name, which is why it was generated at a second time on that point.
All right, so as you guys can see, the defense is basically going after everything.
Hey, his name was misspelled in this report, blah, blah, blah.
what the defense does.
I would just say the simple fact that it has Mr. Evans' name on it, Mr. Williams' name, that needs to be circuit, along with the other three reports, which actually filed after the poster.
It is my recollection that we were told in the report that they would not be used.
There was a question at James S. Crime's laws.
Cat's report would be used.
She didn't give us a definitive answer.
We finally rested on the fact that she was not going to be using James the Crime's laws.
So it is a little bit of a surprise that is now being introduced at trial.
And the other one, I believe, with Withers, we've never ever discussed it.
Well done.
Thanks, Shish.
Hold on.
I don't fully understand this order dated April 22nd.
It says ordering the judge of Special Agent College's expert testimony in the area of cellular foam forensics and on the cash report.
So he's going to testify.
I wouldn't normally admit a cash report.
I don't see why it would come in here.
I don't see this specifically saying it's admissible.
I see it as saying special agent Collins' expert testimony in the area of the cellular foam forensics and on the cash reports.
And so he can testify.
He's here.
You can ask him questions that you want.
But I don't believe I'd be letting this into evidence.
It's just, you know, he's here.
His testimony is his testimony.
And so you know, with regards to that, the necessity of the maps is that the special agent Collins is going to testify in terms of latitude, longitude, and distances on that without a map and using that for the jurors to be able to understand where this is placed on the actual map that's going in the vacuum.
We can show it as a demo if that's going to help him if we'll share his testimony.
I don't have an issue with that.
That's a different question for me.
Typically, we don't just admit an expert's report.
The experts here are going to testify.
Yes, and I don't, it's not clear for me from this order that that's what Judge Siegel anticipated that the report was coming in.
I don't have any issue regarding his testimony.
You know, they're not even the defense indicated.
They're not even avoiding him regarding his qualifications.
So, you know, he's able to testify.
But as far as the report coming in, I don't read your order that way, respectfully.
I understand.
So, you're going to Show the admissibility of the maps with that owner, then you would evaluate them as they're offered individual.
I don't have an issue.
I mean, if he's able to identify them and talk to them, that's a different issue.
It's you're wanting to commit the whole report in as the way I understand it as substantive evidence.
And typically, that's not the way it's done.
I mean, the testimony is the testimony of the witness, not the report.
I want it.
It's cumulative, it's a duplicate of whatever I think is going to testify too.
I don't see the order talks about a date in April.
This report was given after that date.
I don't know if this is what the judge intended.
You said there were some amendments.
I don't know what the amendments are.
I don't know if they're approved by the defense.
They're saying they're objecting to it.
Typically, that's just not done the way it's being done putting in the document.
So, you know, there are a trend number of cases on that specific issue, which I'm happy to provide the court.
What specific issue about a report coming in?
About the maps and the mapping being admissible.
So, that would be not concerned about the mapping.
I'm concerned about the report per se.
Well, I'm just going to make sure we're clear on what specifically.
So, send them this.
Okay, guys, just to summarize the legal jargon that's going on here, basically, they're trying to get this report in to as evidence, but the judge is having an issue with that.
It seems like he has an issue with the report, not necessarily the maps, and he wants the agent to testify to the report, but they don't necessarily want the report in, is the way I understand it.
It's a little confusing, but the prosecutor here did not prepare properly.
Yeah, cellular tower usage illustration.
Yeah.
So, again, this is important because they're trying to show where the hell he was at.
Site usage.
So, that's because there could be the possibility that a juror would think, well, this is showing that the phone is somewhere in this purple area, which would not be correct, as opposed to, for example, a timing advanced illustration, which in this case, the witnesses can testify that the phone is somewhere in this band based on suit.
And then, as well as so, in terms of the way the mapping is then done, to make it clear and understand that these red dots are not the specific locations, but rather the towers that are used, I think it's important for the jurors to understand that and have the first part of that analysis there so that there can't be any sort of improper recall
by the jurors on that.
So, then as to the locations on those, and this would be one of the timing advanced.
So, if they don't have the other first part, okay, so she's trying to get everything in so it makes more sense to the jury, but the defense is challenging that.
That's basically what's going on right now, guys.
I want to summarize it for you.
The fact that the timing advanced data and the way it is done, I don't want there to be any confusion to the jurors to saying that this is overstating the evidence.
So, if I just put in these particular items without the full explanation, because I don't think it is appropriate to do so without the jurors understanding the limitations of the testimony and what the different maps show.
So, on that would be the specific parts the state would be seeking to introduce because the locations of the towers are important to how the map is done.
My understanding is the defense is objecting to that exhibit.
Is that correct?
Yes, Judge.
Does that include the maps?
That doesn't include the maps, Judge.
The defense doesn't want the maps to come in.
So, I guess you in some way it has to come out how it was done.
And you talk to the witness and see if they can authenticate it.
Originally, I was thinking that you're using them as demonstrative, and I would ask him if that helps to illustrate his testimony or not.
If you're saying you're not concerned with that, you want to admit them into evidence.
So, the objection is what's the objection?
That it's irrelevant.
I would also object to the fact that it's not relevant.
It is not relevant.
Is also referring to Mr. Yaman's phone.
Nobody's established that number with his.
It's referring to Mr. Williams' phone.
We've got no testimony that establishes that it's Mr. Williams' phone.
If we were to go to the other two reports, I don't know if other courts are ruling out now.
Again, she's records to the phone numbers assigned them to people.
We have had no testimony or evidence before the court that those actual phone numbers belong to those individuals.
Thank you.
So I haven't heard any phone numbers being assigned to any individuals.
If I may, Your Honor, that is why the state introduced the phone slip that has been brought in through the defendant's fingerprint.
He endorsed that as his telephone number.
And essentially you can't argue that.
As to all of the other individuals, those are coming in from the phone records themselves.
For example, Don David Swithers and Chris Thomas, as I went through with the Smith records custodians.
So let me start.
What is the phone number that's on that former sheet that you're saying is Mr. Derris?
772-713-9807.
That is Melly's phone number.
That's why we had the fingerprint analysis done, and they came in and identified that as the fingerprint of the defendant.
Thank you.
And what's the next phone number?
The next two phone numbers that are the easiest ones to go through, Your Honor, are the phone numbers of Christopher Thomas 772-713-2341.
And if Your Honor will call the phone.
And you guys are probably wondering, why is it supported to know the phone numbers?
Because when you want to go ahead and get geolocation data, guys, on a phone, you identify the phone by the device and by the phone number of the device.
So what they're trying to do is they're trying to say, not only do we know this is Melly's phone and it was in this location, we saw Melly's fingerprints on the phone, so he was the user of the phone because the defense has been trying to say, well, the phone isn't in Melly's name, so it might not necessarily be his phone.
But so the prosecution is trying to show that he is the user of that phone regardless of the name on the actual bill, right?
Because you can have a family plan that might not necessarily have the last name of the user of that phone.
It might be the parent or whatever, but he's the user of that phone, which is why they're trying to link it up that way.
But the defense is fighting and saying, hey, well, you guys are trying to bring in this evidence, but we don't have everyone else's phone number.
We don't have everyone else that's involved in this map that you guys are talking about.
So the defense is trying to not get this put in for obvious reasons because it puts Melly at the scene.
3341 should be another number.
772-713-2341.
And I can bring up here for Your Honor the specific information on Mr. Thomas's phone that was brought in earlier.
Don't worry, guys.
I'll read the chats here in a bit too.
Thank you so much for donating, by the way.
I see them coming in.
The print records custodian.
And there's that.
There's the phone number at the top of the screen, 772-713-2341.
Billing address for Chris Thomas.
Yeah, Fredo was smart.
He ain't testifying.
Yeah, I think Fredo definitely lied to the police as well about where he was that night.
And I wouldn't be surprised.
I heard rumors that I forget where I read it, but Fredo was involved in hiding the gun too because they don't have their murder weapon guys in this situation.
They don't have it, which kind of sucks for the prosecution.
Right.
Going down in the same records because they were produced at the same time.
Oh, in addition, the email address with it is Chris Thomas86.
Again, consistent with Christopher Thomas.
The next phone number that is on this particular is 954-371-7895.
And that is belonging to an injury by the name of John Tedious Withers.
Are there any other phone numbers this witness is going to be testifying?
Yes, Your Honor.
He would also be testifying on the T-Mobile records to the individual by the name of Jameson Francois.
And to go to the subscriber information for Mr. Francois's phone, this is related to Miss Adria Scott.
There's been testimony that Adria or AA is the wife of Jameson Francois.
In addition, that phone number for Mr. Francois, 954-376-9158, is consistently in the phone download of Mr. Denmons and is listed as track.
And there are plenty of photographs and things of that nature that would show and illustrate that Mr. Jameson Francois, also known as TRAC, is the owner of that phone of her.
All right, who is tracked?
That's Track 100, guys, who is the manager for Melly.
So the phone is in his name, it seems, for T-Mobile, which we know that's Melly's phone under the T-Mobile service.
But it's actually in his wife's name.
Correct.
And if you, the rest of the subscriber information also says it is a family plan.
Told y'all, family plan.
And as you guys know, the subscriber means the owner of the telephone.
Basically, who's paying the bills for that phone?
With multiple lines.
Rate plan, family unlimited, two lines including.
On the subscriber information for the first phone that you're suggesting is Mr. Dennons.
What does that subscriber information look like?
That comes back to his mother, Jamie King.
Okay, that's, as you guys know, YNW Melly is Jamel Demons, and his mom is named Jamie King.
So, guys, basically what we're seeing here is a standstill.
You got this FBI agent here that's trying to testify to the location data of the phone and the towers, et cetera, to show that Melly was in the location.
The defense is coming in trying to challenge that.
And what is going on right now is the prosecutor is going back and forth with the judge and the defense to try to get this cell phone information admitted.
The defense is basically saying, hey, well, we don't know if this can come in because XYZ, blah, blah, blah.
And this is defense's job, right, to deflect and try to not get this evidence brought in because it's obviously going to hurt their client, Melly, because it puts him at the scene.
So that's basically a summary of what's going on here, explaining all this legal jargon for y'all.
Because I can see how it would be confusing.
And while we wait, guys, we got 1,300 of y'all in here.
So do me a favor, man.
Please like the video because we're going impromptu live right now.
You guys know I never go live in the middle of the day like this, but obviously this is a special occasion.
So go ahead and like the video for me, please, guys, and sub to the channel if you haven't already.
This is in state 64.
Mr. Friend's Law is a participant in those conversations.
All right, so you guys can see here, it says right here, Sell Bright Readers.
So Celbright, guys, is a device that law enforcement uses, right, to what you call a data dump of the phone.
And a data dump of the phone is you're able to get the phone calls, the text messages, et cetera.
Everything from that phone is extracted and it's put in a format where you can read and analyze the data from the phone.
So that's what you guys are seeing right now.
This is a dump of a phone where you can see all the different parts of the conversation, all the things in the phone, right?
Look, device locations, cookies, contacts, chats, call logs, calendar, apps, info, activities, device notifications.
All this stuff is in the data dump from the Celbright.
So Celbright is a technology that law enforcement uses to dump phones and analyze the data.
Again, you indicated this is Mr. Dennis' phone.
You just told me the subscriber information reflects it.
This is his mother's phone.
The plan is paid for by his mother.
His mother's phone is in here.
She is listed under Brazy, B-R-A-Z-Y, Lady.
And that means 772-501-6942, which is listed as an additional number or subscriber on the phone for Mr. T-mobile from Mr. Demons.
Judge, I just want to point out, she's saying that these are messages between Mr. Javons and various people.
This Celebrate actually tells you, like she stated, like it's going to track, but it's coming from Team Sachs or Power, and he's registering as the owner of the 9807 phone, which in these reports keep going back to Mr. Demons.
But in the Celebrate, it's showing Young Sat Chaser Power.
And so in further showing as to who owns the phone, we can look at all the videos and images of Mr. Demons, of which there are over a thousand videos on the phone.
So they got all his vids in the phone, man.
Showing he is the user and owner of this particular device.
And the reason why they're trying to establish that he is the user and owner of this phone is because they're trying, this is the phone that was tied to the murder that was at the location when the shootings happened.
So they're trying to put Melly at the scene.
Judge again, I don't think that shows that he's the user and owner.
It shows that whoever had possession of this phone took videos of Mr. DeMonts.
They're not selfies.
These are actually pictures that appear to be taken by another party.
Well, these are not videos, actually.
If you want to go to the selfies, I can go to the 10,963 images to show some of those.
I don't know how she's determining her selfies, just testimony possession.
Imagine your whole phone being shown everybody across the world, man.
Goddamn.
For example, this particular image is a screenshot of a FaceTime conversation in which the large image is going to be the person who's on the other line.
The local device is going to be the tiny picture up at the top, which is of Mr. Demons.
This is just one of many, many examples.
Can you go back to the main subscriber information page?
In terms of this one?
So where does it show that you subscribers?
This is from the device itself.
This is an abstraction from Celebrate of that phone in terms of information as to user accounts that are on this particular phone.
You have Lion WMELE booking at gmail.com.
You have Lyman WMLI a Twitter account.
You have Lion WMLI an Instagram account.
You have Mellie.montana, the Snapchat account, which the Snapchat is already in evidence showing that one.
You have Jamel Demons, Jamal.demon's a Facebook account as well on that.
In terms of the content of the messages themselves as well, show that this was Mr. Denman's phone and that he is sending out information and things personal to himself on this.
So there are multiple different types of information to show that.
Judge, if we were to actually go through all of these, inform the court report, you're going to see messages from both of the teams, my girlfriend, to other people.
There is no question that our client had used his phone, but so did all his friends.
So this is a phone that they pass amongst each other.
I don't think bringing up the celebrate or a couple of selfies proves that it was actually his phone.
For that argument, there's pictures of Michael Jackson on there.
So can I say that Michael Jackson as well owned his phone?
Based on her argument, that's what she's stating.
I don't think she has given any definitive proof that this was 100% possessed formally by Mr. Damons.
So the defense is trying to say there's pictures of Michael Jackson in here.
So by her argument, this could be Michael Jackson's phone, which is kind of hilarious, but okay.
I mean, it's very obvious this is Belly's phone, but okay.
I would just point out that not only is that phone in Jayton King's name, so is the phone that she's trying to assign to Matthew's name.
But guys, the reason why they're fighting so hard to say, hey, this isn't his phone, is because they know that this phone was at the crime scene.
They're doing everything in their power to attack this piece of evidence, guys.
This is critical evidence.
So this is the defense right now putting up a fight against it coming in.
Well, I don't the she the counsel suggested and gave me four phone numbers.
One she counsel indicated was Mr. Demons phone as the 713-98072 area code.
And she there's one that was listed as a Christopher Thomas phone, another one as a Mr. Winter's phone, and another one as Francois Monstrax phone.
I haven't seen one that is being Mr. Williams, am I mistaken?
Yes, Chair, there's one on Mr. Williams that was on the initial report.
That is the 954-248-9081.
9548-8489081.
And that's Mr. Williams in one of the scenes.
You say it's his phone.
Correct, that phone.
And defense counsel is well aware of the fact that the phone that Mr. Williams had at the time of his death was recovered.
Williams was SAC Chaser, if I'm not mistaken, guys, one of the victims.
So they have the two victims' phones, Williams and Chris, are the two guys that were Mellie's friends.
That whole file system extraction was done from that phone that shows it was his phone on that.
And as well as the fact that the celebrated extraction that we just went through also has Mr. Williams saved under the name of twin and the phone number, Mr. Denman's.
And which there's discussions back and forth that identifies the 954-248-981 phone number as that of Mr. Williams.
And that there's discussions, for example.
So what she's doing right now is she's explaining who each owner was of each phone, each phone number attached to each person, and she's trying to establish the location of each phone in relation to the crime, okay?
And the defense is obviously fighting this because it's pretty damning for them if she can get this in.
This witness, is he going to testify regarding Mr. Williams' phone?
He's going to testify to the locations of that particular cell phone.
And they're going to be identified by phone number?
At both.
Any other?
No.
If you're going to let in for demonstrative purposes, I could say at the very least that the names are stricken from the reports and referred or redacted, sorry.
And we refer to only the phone numbers, not to the individuals.
Okay, so the defense is doing that.
They only want the phone numbers to be shown, not the names, because obviously she doesn't want the jury to know who is the owner of each phone at what location, at what time, because that protects Melly.
Because if it's like, oh, well, this phone number did this and that, et cetera.
She doesn't want the prosecutor to be able to definitively say, no, the user of this phone was this individual.
Because again, what does it do?
It puts Melly at the scene.
It ties him to the murder because they have very specific location data that shows that the vehicle was driven to a certain area that I showed you guys before.
It was a desolate area.
They walked around the car, shot into it, blah, blah, blah.
So the defense is doing everything in their power to not have, number one, they're trying not to get the phones in.
And if they are going to get them in, they want to redact it.
So the jury isn't necessarily aware of who the owner of each phone is.
And that's what the prosecution is trying to do, arguing that, look, there's a bunch of selfies on here.
This is Melly's phone.
And the defense is saying, well, he has pictures of Michael Jackson in there.
So are we going to use the fact that there's pictures of individuals on there to say that that's the person's phone?
Which is a disingenuous argument, but that's what defense attorneys do.
Thank you.
So we're bringing the jury in now.
As far as that demonstrative item, you know, I'm getting conflicting information.
I don't want something going before the jury about this is Mr. Devin's phone or this one's this one's phone.
It's there's circumstantial evidence to that effect, but that's not, I'm not putting that in evidence that way.
Just show the portion that shows the maps and you can talk about the maps and the other things.
But they've got the portion that has at the bottom or like three o'clock at the bottom or top that identifies Jamel Devin's phone.
Used by the phone number.
Okay.
That's not a problem.
So I think I need just a couple of moments to adjust that.
Go ahead.
Okay.
We're in recess.
Thank you very much.
So it looks like they're taking a quick recess because they're going to probably bring the jury back in.
So I'll read some of these chats while we wait.
So we got here Bitcoin Bandit goes, W impromptu stream, Iron.
Appreciate that, my friend.
We got here Bitcoin Bandit again.
You want to do an emergency meeting tonight for Tate?
Yeah, I mean, guys, they've pretty much formally charged them finally.
I mean, it took them fucking months to do it, but they formally charged them.
Kimo ENT court is back live.
Whatever relevant goes, shout out from Sweden.
Thanks for all the content.
Got you, my friend.
Junior says, Did you use data dump while working for HSI?
Can celebrions use it?
I'm trying to see if my girl Chien.
Yeah, we definitely use Celebrate.
It's all across law enforcement, guys.
They use Cebrite.
That's like the number one device to use when it comes to extracting phones, whether it's law enforcement or intelligence agencies.
They all use Celebrates from different models and years, et cetera.
But that's pretty much the main thing that all law enforcement uses.
And then you got Artic Byron goes, is the jury in the room while they're discussing this or did they remove the jury out of the courtroom?
It looks like they were out of the courtroom while they're discussing this phone stuff.
And the defense obviously is doing everything in their power to not get this in for obvious reasons.
So let's see here.
So yeah.
Yeah, there was no trial yesterday, guys, because it was a federal holiday with the Juneteenth.
Myron, what you know about Shake what your mama gave you?
All right, pause.
That's strange.
Super chat.
Okay.
And let's see here.
We got 1,500 of you guys in here, man.
So do me a favor, guys.
Go ahead and like the video, man.
Subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.
Also, I'm drinking some Gorilla Mine right here.
Shout out to them.
Go ahead and make sure to check them out.
I could put the link in the chat for y'all.
Gorilla Mind, use the code FRESH at checkout, man, to get a discount for any Gorilla Mind product.
Shout out to Derek from More Plates and More Dates, one of the homies.
But yeah, guys, impromptu stream today.
All right.
I pretty much saw that this FBI agent was going to testify with what's going on as far as this case with the cell phone location data.
And that's obviously very important because that's what's going to put Melly at the scene.
So this is critical evidence for the prosecution because at this point, they haven't been able to 100% definitively say that Melly was the trigger man.
They could kind of put him at the scene, right?
Because this surveillance footage right here, which I'll actually show y'all that they showed, okay?
I'll show you guys some of this right now.
YNW Melly turn on.
Matter of fact.
And this back on screen for you guys, right?
So if you go open up another tab, boom, okay.
YW Melly surveillance, right?
You're going to get right here.
This is them coming out, right?
So you can see here, this is Sack Chaser, right?
This is the guy that was sitting in the front seat from the photograph I showed you guys before, right?
YW Melly, right?
Right.
So y'all can see this right here.
So here's Sack Chaser right here.
And this is, let me get rid of this.
So you can see him coming.
October 26, 2018.
This is in Fort Lauderdale, I think, after they finished recording.
So he gets in the front seat, right?
The jean jacket.
And then this is the other victim, Chris.
Or no, no, I think this is actually YW Bortland right here.
He's going to get in the driver's seat, if I'm not mistaken.
Right?
So he jumps in the front, so they're waiting for Melli to come out.
All right.
So another individual walks out.
I don't know who these three guys are, but they were there, I guess, at the studio at the same time.
But I know the police interviewed these guys and they all gave conflicting stories.
All right.
So here you see, here's Melly right here, guys.
Now, look, he has a satchel as he's coming out.
And they actually mentioned this in a criminal complaint.
Look at how it's moving.
Is that indicative of potentially something being inside of it?
You can see it's weighed down by something.
Right?
So he gets in the back seat, right?
Right here.
Here he is.
Right?
So you can see him get in.
Rewind that real quick.
So Melly comes out at about 218.
Bam, here he is.
see a little satchel right there so that could be where the gun was which they never recovered And then this is YW Chris, I think, the guy he's going to get.
No, is that him?
Yep, he's going to get bam.
Okay.
He's going to sit right next to Melly.
So that's one of the murder victims right there.
So these two.
All right.
So one more time.
Let's go through this.
And let me enlarge it for y'all so we can really look at this.
All right.
So Sack Chaser right here, who's one of the individuals that they were talking about on the phone, because they have his cell phone data as well.
And there's Wynne W. Bortland, who was the driver that brought them to the hospital after they were shot and claimed that they had been shot in a drive-by shooting.
He gets in the front driver.
Sack Tracer on the side, and this is them coming out of a music studio by the way guys.
All right.
So now here comes Melly.
Looks like something is weighing down his satchel.
We can speculate as to what it is.
Was it a gun?
Was it something else?
So he gets in the back seat.
You can see the door open right here.
Closes.
So he's now in the vehicle.
The victim in the front seat, Sack Tracers in the vehicle.
And Wynne W. Bortland is in the vehicle in the driver's seat.
And then here comes Chris.
He gets in right next to Melly.
And he ended up getting shot.
Now, guys, just so you know, the bullet holes were on this side of the vehicle.
However, they were shot from the left.
So the bullets were going from this way to that way.
But Melly and Bortland claimed that the shots came this way, which doesn't make sense because they were shot from their left.
So it didn't make sense.
The wound pattern and the ballistics.
And this is the last time anyone saw these guys alive.
I guess Melly really had murder on his mind when he got in the vehicle at this point.
So this effectively proves that Melly was in the vehicle and then you could see them take off.
Bam.
Because when you read the police report, these individuals tried to say that they took Melly, but that's clearly not true.
And y'all can see it right now.
Boom.
There they go.
Leaving in tandem.
So I think they're still here on recess.
Let me go ahead and refresh this for y'all.
see what's going on all right this is day five so So he has murderer on his mind.
Y'all are hilarious, bro.
Let's see here.
We got 1,600 of y'all homies in here.
Shout out to all you guys.
You could be anywhere else in the world, but you're here with me.
So thank you for that.
Court's in a brief recess, so they're probably going to reconvene here in a little bit.
Let's see here.
Let me see what the chat's up to.
Guys, get the likes up.
Get the likes up.
Let's get to 1,000 likes here if y'all can.
We got 1,600 of you guys watching right now, which I appreciate greatly.
This impromptu stream.
Normally never on FedEx in the middle of the day like this, but I figured you guys might want to get some value out of this with a live trial.
When I saw that they brought the FBI agent in to testify from, you know, that's a phone expert.
I saw that obviously the prosecution means business here.
I mean, guys, they're trying to push for the death penalty.
So I'm not surprised that they're pulling out all the stops, right?
Bringing in expert witnesses, et cetera.
Because last week, you know, the prosecution, you know, some of the critics were like, oh, well, they haven't really tied Melly to the murder, which in my head, I'm like, well, I mean, bro, you got surveillance footage clearly showing that he was in the car at the same time, right?
So it's like, come on, man.
But, again, the defense's job is to, you know, create reasonable doubt.
Yeah, well, Jason, you got to – Jason T. says the prosecutor's case is weak so far.
Well, it's not done, bro.
You know, you got to understand that they're building the story up, okay?
So there's a lot of evidence here.
There's a lot of evidence that you guys got to remember.
So this case is what I would call a circumstantial case.
What circumstantial case means basically is that there's pieces of evidence, guys, that if alone, the evidence is weak, but if you put the evidence side by side, right, in chronological order, et cetera, it paints a picture so that you can only come to one conclusion typically.
So the only way that a case is like this is going to make sense for everybody, especially when they don't have a murder weapon, they don't have confession, they don't have an eyewitness, et cetera, is they're going to have to rely heavily on the circumstantial evidence to paint the picture.
So the evidence, right, is going to speak for the victims.
But for you to see the full picture, you have to see all the pieces of evidence, how they intertwine, et cetera.
So you got the cell phone location data showing that Melly is the user of that phone and it was in the area at the same time.
You got the ballistics that show that a drive-by shooting doesn't make sense given the bullet holes were coming from the right side of the vehicle, but the wounds were on the left side of the victims, right?
You have the one sponge shell casing that was on the bottom floorboard where Melly was sitting.
You have Melly making cryptic messages saying, you know, he had DM'd someone on Instagram saying, I did that with a shush, you know, emoji.
Like all this shit is circumstantial, but by itself, it's like, oh, well, you know, can we by itself, there's reasonable doubt.
But when you put it all together and stack it together, it paints a picture that you can only come to one conclusion, right?
So that's basically the power of circumstantial evidence, but it needs to be put all together, especially since they don't have a murder weapon.
So the prosecutors got the work cut out for them, but I think they'll be able to make it happen, honestly.
I think once you look at all the evidence, there's no way that you cannot come to the conclusion that Melly shot his friends.
Simple.
You know, I know people say there's no murder weapon.
We don't have a motive.
You know, you can't effectively place him at the scene.
You know, he never gave a statement.
I mean, that's all.
Yeah.
These are all valid holes in the case.
But we have some very powerful evidence also that shows that there's no other way that it could have been done.
And then also keep in mind that they lied.
All right.
So we're back on live.
Also keep in mind that they lied and said that, oh, yeah, we were here when the phone data shows otherwise.
So them lying also hurts the credibility.
But let's go back to the trial.
Let's bring it back in.
It is very coming in.
Ms. Jones, thank you.
Be seated.
Let the record, once again, reflect the presence of our jury.
As both as counsel and as just as jury, always remain on the same date, John.
See below, I agree.
I need to resolve certain issues.
And before we go further, it's approaching five o'clock now.
So my thought is on your resolve.
And we'll see you all back tomorrow morning.
So remember the admonition to not discuss the case, but form any opinion about the case to allow anyone to discuss the case in your presence, certainly no research about the case.
All right.
You hear that every time we break, I tell you that.
Very important.
So I'm sorry for these meetings.
We'll see you back tomorrow.
Thank you.
Anything further to discuss, Council?
I don't believe so.
I will, if I can make the witness aware, especially if you're calling because you're on the stand in the middle of your testimony, I can't have any communication with you outside the presence of the TED special.
If there are any emergencies or anything else, please contact my office so they can get a message to me so that there's callings for record.
Understood.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Danny, Danny.
All right.
So it looks like they're cutting it for the day, if I'm not mistaken.
I just got up real quick to get some water.
But yeah, guys, I mean, we'll have to see.
Like I said before, this case is extremely circumstantial.
So they're going to need every day to paint the picture for you guys because, I mean, you know, it's a case where all the facts have to align up for it to make sense for you guys.
So that's what it is.
So let's see here.
Love the content, Mario.
Keep the videos.
Keep it coming.
Got you guys.
The ones on the left side, that's big.
Absolutely.
Keep chilling.
NSA, do they have a motive for speculation as to why?
They think it's money, guys.
A lot of people say it's money, and there was beef between Mellian and Sack Chaser and Melly's mom.
That's yes, Sherman.
Then we also be testifying on the Team Mobile records to the individual by the name of Jameson Francois.
And to go to the subscriber information for Mr. Francois's phone, this is related to Miss Adria Scott.
There's been testimony that Adria or AA is the wife of Jameson Francois.
In addition, that phone number for Mr. Also, guys, did me a favor, like the video.
We got 1600 plus y'all in here, man.
Just like it.
Let's get up to 1,500 likes if we can.
Helps the algorithm quite a bit.
Appreciate it.
It is listed as TRAP, and there are plenty of photographs and things of that nature that would show and illustrate that Mr. Jameson Francois, also known as TRAP, is the owner of that phone number.
But it's actually in his wife's name.
Correct.
And if you, the rest of the subscriber information also says it is a family plan with multiple lines.
Great plan, family unlimited, two lines including.
On the subscriber information for the first phone that you're suggesting is Mr. Dennis.
What does that subscriber information look like?
That comes back to his mother, Jamie King.
What's on the I don't know what the exhibit number was.
Did you print out anything on these phones?
I think there was a printout that objected to it.
There's multiple printouts on the phone, not all of which have been entered into evidence at this point.
What's in evidence so far?
Okay, so let's break this down.
I have two great guests joining me.
Mina, I want to start with you and then Jeffrey, I want to get your take on things here.
Mina, we were talking about Raven Liberty, who is arguing against this evidence coming in.
We just saw it in court right now.
And, you know, I did some background research on her, and she had represented Kodak Black previously.
And I see your point.
When I looked up her name to get some trial intake and insight on her, a lot of people were talking about not her legal acumen, but all the wrong things.
Do you think we're going to see her taking a forefront during the course of this trial?
Or do you think she's going to be more of a background role?
What do you think?
Absolutely.
I'm looking forward to her taking more of a forefront.
She deserves that.
It's a shame that when you Google her, you know, these frivolous things come up about her body language or she's laughing too much with the defendant.
She is a respectable lawyer.
She's present, as you mentioned, she's defended other celebrities as well.
And she deserves to be known for her work.
Not only that, the things that she is objecting to is very important.
Now, we haven't seen any.
They made Melly wear a turtleneck, by the way, guys, because he has the names of his victims' mothers on his neck.
According to the prosecution's opening remarks, there is an alleged text message of some sort of admission of guilt on Melly's behalf.
And obviously, that text message would have been found on the phone.
So it's very important that the defense tries to throw out whatever evidence is trying to be introduced in this case from that phone, because that literally could be the nail in the coffin if they can introduce certain things from the phone.
So I'm very happy that it's her that is presenting the objection.
And I am looking forward to seeing more from her.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
And you make a great point.
The evidence from the phone is very important here.
And we're talking about that text message that the prosecution is probably going to be looking to get before this jury in a very prominent way.
Now, we have a circumstantial case here.
And Jeffrey, I want to ask you, when you have a circumstantial case from the prosecution, it's your job to connect the dots with various pieces of evidence in order to get that before the jury and prove your case beyond a reasonable doubt.
But I want to shift now to the defense side.
When you have, you're confronted for your client with a circumstantial case from the prosecution, you want to sort of pick apart the evidence and seek to exclude whatever points of evidence that the prosecution is looking to put forth before the jury so they can't connect those dots.
What do you think with this piece of evidence?
What do you think the goal is for the defense with this particular piece of evidence?
And do you think if they are able to get it excluded, that's going to be a significant blow to the prosecution's case?
Yeah, so a few things, okay?
Number one, I want to jump back a little bit because all of this should be viewed in the context of Melly's life as on the line.
This is a death penalty case.
It doesn't get any more serious in the United States of America.
And so I want to push back a little bit because when people are talking about body language and they're talking about laughing in the courtroom, they're talking about professionalism.
And you can be a good lawyer and you can still slip up.
I've seen very, very good lawyers become friendly with their clients or have a rapport with their clients, which we need to have.
But the courtroom ain't the place for it.
Go talk to them at the jail if you want to laugh.
So it has nothing to do with their gender.
It has nothing to do with anything nefarious.
That is severe.
You are not sitting in a place where you are laughing.
This is a death penalty case and you're in a court of law.
Decorum is important.
No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
That's number one.
Number two, when we're talking about the keeping this evidence out and keeping as much of the cell phone data out, the government wants it all to go to the jury because they want the jury to get this Instagram message where he supposedly says something along the lines of I did that.
Shush, that is what they're saying is in his phone, and that's why they want to tie it to him as his phone.
That's why they want to make the logical leap that this is his phone, and that's why the defense is fighting so hard against it because it is the entire case.
It is the entire case.
Because when you're talking about circumstantial evidence, you can look the jury in the eye and tell them they have to shake hands with their conscience that they had to make a logical leap to convict your convict your client and sentence him to death in a state that's going to allow them to sentence him to death without a unanimous jury.
This is as serious as it gets.
That's why this is still going on in this case.
No, absolutely.
Great points from both of you.
And we're going to take a quick break here at Lawn Crime when we come back.
More of this trial.
Rapper YNW Melly down in Florida, murder trial.
Stay tuned here at Lawn Crime.
Yeah, Melly has definitely displayed some strange behavior, guys.
I'll show you what I mean by this YNW Melly behavior.
Yeah.
So it's blown into the air.
YNW Melly has been pretty expressive for the camera in the courtroom.
So we've got to do it.
What does it mean for him, if anything?
We discuss.
Hold on.
I mean, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
Stop.
Hold on.
Look at this shit, guys.
This nigga crazy.
Apparent prayers and kisses blown into the air.
YNW Melly has been pretty expressive for the camera in the courtroom.
What does it mean for him, if anything?
We discuss.
And you can see, look, he had to hold back the laughter, guys.
Look at this shit.
Look, so he blows out the kisses for the camera in the courtroom.
What does it mean for him, if anything?
He looks and then he covers his mouth because he's smiling.
Thing we discuss.
But, bro, this dude is also fucking demon time, bro.
I'm Angela Levy, and welcome to Law and Crime's Sidebar Podcast.
We are entering the second week of the double murder trial of Jamel Demons in Broward County, Florida.
Demons, of course, is known by the stage name YNW Melly.
He's been going viral during his trial, not because of the evidence, but because of some of the things he's done in front of the camera.
Just a quick recap to bring you up to speed if you haven't been following the case.
Demons is on trial, accused of murdering two of his lifelong friends and YNW members, Anthony Williams, known as YNW Sack Chaser, and Chris Thomas, who's known as YNW Juvie.
The two men were shot to death in the early morning hours of October 26, 2018, after four YNW members left a late-night recording session in an SUV.
The state says Melly is the trigger man, that he pulled the trigger.
The defense says the prosecution can't prove it.
Melly's co-conspirator, Cortland Henry, who went by YNW Bortland, was driving the SUV that night.
And from what I understand, he's going to testify in this case, guys.
So if he testifies, I'm more than willing to think he's probably going to testify against Melly.
Keep in mind, guys, that he's been out of jail all this time.
Melly's been in, he's been out.
And also faces charges in the murders.
He will be tried separately at a later date.
Now, back to Melly's behavior in the courtroom.
Joining me to discuss the behavior of YNW Melly in the courtroom and in front of the camera is Bernarda Violona.
She is a frequent guest here on Law and Crime, also a defense attorney and former prosecutor.
So she's been on both sides of the aisle.
Thanks so much, Bernarda, for coming on.
We appreciate it.
Thank you for having me, Angela.
Your first impressions of the case so far as we end week one.
Just let's start there.
It has been a show.
It has been a performance from both sides.
Not what exactly we expected to see at a trial, but definitely a performance on each side.
Every day, you just never know what you're going to get from this trial.
It kind of reminds me of the Darrell Brook trial.
A little bit, yeah.
Our defendant is a little more behaved, I guess, better behaved than Daryl Brooks, but there is still that viral aspect of it.
So some of the moments that we've seen in this trial.
And guys, just so you know, the reason why they're pushing for the death penalty is what they're saying is that Melly is a gang member.
That's actually one of the main things that they're using to make their case for the death penalty against him.
Geez Shine Bloods have set the internet on fire.
You know, they've gone viral on Instagram, TikTok.
People are turning, I know, to our social media accounts to see what is he going to do next in front of the camera.
Shout out to Honeybones Go.
Out to all the dads that are positive roles in their kids' life.
Thank you, Mara, for today's show.
This is to help the TV that Angie broke.
Thank you so much.
I appreciate it, honey bones.
One of the big moments that happened during week one that really had people thinking, Oh my gosh, what is going on here?
was Melly.
And then Ellian Gerardo goes, Yo, Marin, this is my first super chat, but shout out to you and Fresh.
I want to say thank you guys for always providing value.
Got you, man.
Kissing kind of into his hands, and then it appeared he was blowing it out.
So, Bernarda, it almost feels like it was like a little bit of a prayer there.
And then this kind of almost like a Zen moment, and then poof.
So, what do you make of this?
Really, nigga.
You know, I should mention a lot of this is going on outside the presence of the jury, but it's still being captured and seen everywhere.
So, as you can see with Melly, a lot is going on in his mind.
In terms of the pressures that he's facing, remember that he's facing the death penalty.
So, a lot is writing on this trial.
So, I'm sure that he was probably sending a prayer and also just asking for some peace or calming down of his mind.
But who knows?
Because we can't get into his mind frame.
I don't know about that.
I think he was trying to be funny because you can see he was laughing.
He covered his mouth after he had to hold back the laughter.
So, clearly, he's antagonizing the victims' families.
Because, just so you guys know, the victims' families all think he did it.
They did, they interviewed Chris's father, right?
The guy that was sitting next to Melly that got shot and one of Melly's best friends.
They all think because Melly's from Gifford, Florida, they all think Melly did it, guys.
Which, because Melly didn't show up to the funerals, he didn't put anything in for their, as far as like contributing to the funerals, they pushed the funeral back for him to show up, and he still didn't show up.
So, just so y'all know, all the victims' families think Melly did it as well.
I think one of the things that's important to keep in mind here and in kind of preparing for this trial, I watched a lot of interviews and videos of Melly, and I remember him talking about kind of like these two kind of personalities within him: Melly, who's kind of chill, and Melvin, who was more protective, I guess, or maybe had more of a violent streak.
And maybe there's just a lot going on within him, as you mentioned, that we don't know about.
He's talked to and he the funeral was the funeral, was uh when he was out, guys.
Um, remember, they didn't, I don't think they kept picked him up until February of 2019.
So, the murder happened in October.
He was out for a few months before they went and arrested him.
He even talked in one interview about having more than two personalities, more than the Melly and the Melvin.
So, do you think that might be part of what is going on here?
It's possible.
You got to think for a defendant, for a person that is on trial, especially a person that's on trial for his life, there are a lot of pressures and a lot of things to think about.
And as a defendant, you're sitting there and you have to be quiet, you can't respond to what's going on in the courtroom.
And he's just listening to everything that is being said, everything that is going on in that courtroom.
So, it's trying to get some peace in his mind or try to lay things out or get some understanding.
There's just so much going on, and it's like you never know what his personality or his just his mental health, how's it doing on any particular day?
And that's just for anyone that could be standing trial, especially when their life is on the line.
Very stressful situation.
Most of us cannot understand what it's like to be in that position.
Most of us have not been charged with serious crimes, and murder is the most serious crime you can face in our criminal justice system.
In a lot of courtrooms, Bernarda, there are strict rules about decorum.
And when a defendant can say things, of course, they can always talk with their attorneys.
I've been in courtrooms before where the defendant can't, you know, they might be able to look to their family or they maybe give them a nod or a wave when they come in.
But this, there's been some video that we've captured of him kind of motioning to the gallery as he exits.
So, Bernarda, what do you make of that?
Does this kind of play against Melly at all?
Is this just him being a young guy, maybe doing this to his family?
What do you think?
So, not at all, Angela.
So, you have to think this is going at the end of the case when the court is done for the day, or even right before lunch before they break, or actually anytime there is a break.
So, in terms of order in the courtroom, that is all up to the judge.
The judge determines what the order is going to be, what's going to be the decorum of the courtroom.
Some judges do not allow the defendant to turn around from their seat or to actually address anyone in the audience.
So, it's all up to the judge.
But, in terms of his actions right now, it's quite common.
He wants to turn around and take a look at his family, his friends, or his supporters, and just let them know that he appreciates their support.
And this is all out of the presence of the jury.
That's the most important thing to have to think about.
Is the jury present in the courtroom when these actions are taking place?
Because that makes the big difference.
Most certainly.
And we haven't really seen him, at least I haven't noticed him doing these things in the presence of the jury.
One of the things we did notice on Thursday was him doing something.
You know, he's a musician.
He produces music.
And it appeared that he was kind of like maybe thinking about some music, bopping his head.
What do you think, Bernarda?
Again, this is him trying to get some peace in his mind.
We all bop to music, but you have to think that he is a musician.
He is a bopping to music when your life is on the line and you're facing a murder trial.
Like, come on, man.
Rapper.
So to him, this may be the calming effect that he needs in order to continue with this trial day in and day out.
So, again, I don't make much of it.
Again, the difference is: was the jury present when he was doing this?
And it's not disturbing the courtroom or the proceedings.
So I don't see a judge calling him out on these actions of him bopping his head.
But I'm sure if the jury was present, they may be asking themselves, What is going on in his head?
Why is he bopping his head?
But they probably also know that he is a musician.
You know, he produces music.
They wouldn't know this, but I saw an interview of him one time talking about how he wrote Murder on My Mind while he was doing time on another charge.
So involving a firearm and firing a gun near a school.
So I think a lot of people might do that.
But even though it's not in front of the jury, there's still a camera in there.
Would that cause you any concern?
Because these images are being seen out on the internet.
There are mixed reactions to them.
His fans love it, right?
His fans really like it.
His critics, his detractors, not so much.
Yeah, but you got to think while other people are concerned about the camera and they're watching this.
It doesn't matter.
And the reason it doesn't matter is because the people outside of the courtroom, they're not the jurors.
They're not in the jury.
What matters is what those 12 people that are sitting listening to the evidence, what they think what's going on, how they are evaluating his actions inside of the courtroom.
So in terms of the camera, I'm not concerned about it.
Of course, he knows he's being recorded.
Of course, he knows that this is being aired out into the public, into the media, but that same video captions are not being presented in front of the jury.
Bernardo, one thing that has caught the attention of some people is the fact that Melly seems to smile at the camera a lot.
One person described it as him flirting with the camera.
So Bernardo, what do you make of that?
The smiling, we see the head bopping again.
Stupid.
Maybe he thinks that he's doing a music video.
Who knows?
But I think the bop.
Yeah, it's never a good look, man, when you're smiling at the camera when you're on capital murder charges, man.
It's probably out of nervousness and tried to calm himself down.
And in terms of the smiling, I think it's also the same thing.
What I'm curious to see is whether he's been evaluated for any kind of mental health issues in the sense of going forward with this trial.
But of course, he has to be confident to be able to go forward with trial.
But I'm curious whether that examination was done, whether there was any concern as to his ability to proceed with the trial.
I'm curious about that too, especially when I watched some of these interviews that he had done before all of this happened.
I wondered when he was talking about Melly versus Melvin.
Also, how many people?
I mean, I can't imagine being on trial for double murder and not being a little bit worried and concerned.
So, how much of this is putting on a show, putting on a front?
I mean, I think that can be a part of it, but also you have to think there's so many different things that are playing in here.
One thing we have to remember, of course, he's a young man.
Two, he is a rapper.
He does have fame in the sense that he has a lot of fans.
So he may want to portray himself in a certain way for the fans, but also have to balance it out that I'm on trial for my life here.
So try to get some calmness and being able to proceed day in and day out.
But I think the power is in the defense attorney and speaking to him and let him know: like, look, you are on display.
All your actions are being seen and not just in front of the jury, but also on the camera.
So just be mindful.
And I think that's what the defense attorney has to do every day: remind him, like, look, not only is the jury watching you, but also the cameras are watching you.
And I think that's the power struggle that Melly's having with himself.
It's like, wait, I'm a rapper, but I'm also on trial for my life.
One thing, Bernarda, that some people pointed out to us is that Melly appears to smell himself at some points.
He kind of sniffs himself.
And there was one moment in particular on Thursday that really caught the attention of people on social media.
What the fuck?
Obviously, you know, this is something people on social media are talking about.
The jury's not seeing it.
But what are your thoughts?
And Jeanette, haven't you smelled something?
And you're like, wait, hold up.
Is that me?
Let me check if that's me.
I want to confirm that it's at all.
Exactly.
I mean, I got that as well.
I want to make sure that it's not me.
So you got to think with Melly, he's not really paying attention that the camera is completely videotaping every little thing that he's doing.
I don't think he's thinking about it each and every second.
So he had a personal moment and just had to check out and make sure that it wasn't him.
Or maybe it was him.
Yeah, I think we've all had one of those moments where you're like, uh-oh, I smell something.
Is that me?
Or what have you?
But it did seem to catch fire a little bit on Twitter that particular clip.
Another thing that people have pointed out is the fact that he kind of chit-chats toward the gallery at the end of the day.
And I feel like Bernarda, in that particular clip, he looked kind of annoyed and irritated.
So something kind of caught his attention or caught his eye, and he's obviously talking with one of his lawyers about it.
Yeah, it looks like something transpired or something may have been mouthed to him that actually bothered him.
Now, in terms of how the defense attorney is responding, the defense attorney has to be very mindful.
Again, if it is in front of the jury, her reaction, how she's reacting to her client.
Because remember, you don't want to give off to the jury that one, it's like maybe you're too close to the client, or two, that you're scared of the client or uncomfortable with the client.
There's a lot that the defense attorney has to be mindful of because it all depends, again, how is the jury receiving these types of interactions?
But that particular interaction wasn't in front of the jury, but I'm just talking in general when the jury is present.
So you think all of this outside the presence of the jury is much ado about nothing.
Maybe fans see it on social media, but you know, your thoughts.
Absolutely.
All of this that's going on outside of the presence of the jury, I would not pay it no mind because it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter in the sense of that the jury is not present and the jury is ultimately the ones that are going to make the ultimate decision as to his guilt and whether the death penalty should be placed in this case.
He should be given the death penalty.
Outside of the presence of the jury, I'm not concerned as long as he's not acting disrespecting the court in the sense that the judge may hold him in contempt or that he can say or do something outside of the presence of the jury that can possibly be used against him at trial.
Those are my concerns right there.
Bernarda, there's been a lot of chatter on social media, on the YouTube chat about the attorney that sits next to Mellie and Mellie, and she seems to be almost kind of like motherly toward him.
They seem to be very friendly.
There's a lot of giggling and laughing going on.
So I'm kind of wondering what your thoughts are about that.
So my thoughts in regards to that as a criminal defense attorney, as a former prosecutor, is that it's possible that the criminal defense attorney can be chiming in in the sense of like rubbing him and talking to him and seeming very close to him in front of the jury to try to show the jury like, look, this is not a guy that's capable of killing two people.
Like this is a guy I'm comfortable with talking to, to sitting next to, to actually putting my hand on him to make to let him know that it's going to be okay.
So this can actually all be an act in front of the jury so they can take that into account.
Because remember, the jury's observing everything that's going on.
Yeah, they're trying to humanize him because obviously the murder that he's being accused of is very gruesome, man.
I mean, he shot them both at close range, right?
Allegedly.
And there was blood everywhere.
If you guys saw like the some of the photographs of the inside of the vehicle, it was not nice.
Let me see if I could pull some up.
Courtroom.
And this can be just a show of the defense part.
But also on a flip side, this can also be the defense attorney has been working with Mellie for years now and that she's gotten close to Mellie.
So they have built a rapport, a relationship.
And this is why they're so close to each other.
But as long as they keep it professional and they're tending to what's going on in the courtroom, it's all okay.
So it could be a lot of strategy going on with this.
I mean, it could be genuine, but also there could be a strategy, a strategic kind of thing going on here.
Absolutely.
It could be strategic.
I will make it strategic, especially when you're talking about two people, two murders that you're talking about.
You want to try to portray and also humanize Mellie for this jury.
And that's the way of doing it without actually speaking to the jury.
And really, people forget there is a bit of stagecraft that goes into these things.
Am I wrong?
You're not wrong at all.
When it comes to being a trial attorney, and if you're an excellent trial attorney, you have to know that everything, it is a performance.
You are on stage.
You are performing for this jury from the moment you leave your house in the morning and every single second that you're in front of that jury, whatever you do, is so.
Here are some of the footage, uh, photographs from the crime scene, guys.
Okay, if your discretion is advised, some of this stuff is pretty violent.
Uh, so this is from let's see here.
As y'all can see, here's a bullet.
Um, the bullets, right, on the right-hand side of the vehicle, right?
Even though we know the wounds came from the left left-hand side, right?
And then this is the front passenger seat where one of the victims was found, Sack Chaser.
There's a phone right there, right?
That's the back seat where Chris was found.
Going forward again, what are we looking at in this image?
...show and, you know, items of interest that will be later be collected.
The two Sprite cameras...
Y'all can see all the blood here, right?
Pretty crazy that were there to a cotton swab and pass it back to the vehicle.
The name of the individual who rented this vehicle, and this was early on in the trial.
I think this was like day one or day two of the trial, right here, right?
And they're doing you know the bullet trajectory analysis, etc.
So, um, yeah, man, very violent stuff, very violent stuff.
Um, so, guys, uh, I think I'm gonna wrap this thing up here in a second.
Uh, can you do a Chicago Ripper View there?
Organized crime group of serial killers, cannibals, rapists, and necrophils.
Uh, I could put that on the list.
Uh, Marin, I've been in his shoes before, they don't want him or care about the victims, they care about the story.
The media made a lot of money, of course.
I mean, they're making money right now, broadcasting it everywhere.
If he has two personalities that he's crazy and not fit for trial, I think that's more of a marketing thing for his music because clearly he's competent to stand trial, hence why they're having the trial.
Um, but yeah, guys, I'll probably do another live uh, maybe tomorrow during the day, um, before we do Fresh and Fit for this trial if I got time.
But yeah, man, I figured I'd come on.
Uh, it kind of sucks because the FBI agent went and took the stand, and then the defense immediately came in and tried to, you know, stop his testimony and say, Oh, no, we don't want this stuff to come in because he was going to talk about the phone location data.
But uh, but yeah, if you guys enjoyed this stuff, I'll do more of it.
Um, where you know, I'm live streaming the trials with you guys and pausing and explaining things, et cetera, because I know it could be kind of difficult to explain to understand at times.
And then also, uh, the courtroom has like really shitty audio.
I don't know if y'all noticed that.
Like, it's really fucking shitty and hard to make out what they're saying sometimes.
So, I have to really pay attention and then, you know, tell you guys back what they're saying.
But, yeah, hope you guys liked it, man.
Don't forget to like the video, subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.
I'm going to get ready here and hit the gym here in a bit.
But I love y'all.
I'll be back more than likely either tomorrow for Fed or definitely for Fresh and Fit at 7 p.m.
We're going to have a special guest on tomorrow.
So, yeah, hope you guys enjoyed this impromptu Fed Reacts, man.
Catch you guys next one.
Peace.
I'm special agent with Homelands Investigations, okay, guys.
HSI.
This is what Fed Reacts covers.
Defender Jeffrey Williams, an associate of YSL, did commit the felony.
Here's what 6ix9ine actually did.
This attack shifted the whole U.S. government.
This guy got arrested for espionage, okay?
▲
Export Selection