Defense attorneys for the three men accused of murdering rapper XXXTentacion raised the possibility that rap superstar Drake may have been behind the 2018 murder.
Suspects include Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome and Dedrick Williams. He is accused of fatal shooting. Outside a Florida motorcycle store in what prosecutors allege was a robbery that escalated into a cold-blooded murder.
Each suspect faces a charge of first-degree murder.
But the legal team for the three defendants argued that investigators did not investigate XXXTentacion’s simmering feud with Drake in the wake of the 20-year-old’s untimely death. The rapper, whose real name is Jahseh Onfroy, once claimed on social media that if he ever died, Drake was the reason, though he later retracted that bold statement.
The rapper’s death comes four months after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people, which the defense argued prompted the highly scrutinized Broward County Sheriff’s Office to immediately investigate XXXTentacion’s murder. pressured to solve the case, without a thorough search for other suspects, including a celebrity. .
“For Broward County, for everybody involved, it was a nightmare,” one of the lawyers, Mauricio Padilla, told jurors.
Prosecutors say the shooting was the result of a robbery gone wrong, and there is no evidence linking Drake to the fatal shooting.
Prosecutors said Boatwright, Trayvon and Williams allegedly went to Reva Motorsports on June 18, 2018, to buy a mask with plans for an armed robbery, but when they saw it inside the store, they called XXXTentacion. Decided to target.
As the rapper left the store in his BMW, Williams cut off the sports car with his SUV as Boatwright and Newsom chased XXXTentacion’s car to rob it, prosecutor Pascal Achille said in court.
The three grabbed about $50,000 in XXXTentacion’s Louis Vuitton bag before Boatwright shot him multiple times “without provocation.”
A trio of men have been linked to the shooting. Through surveillance footage And cell phone locations, as well as testimony from Robert Allen, a fourth man involved in the rapper’s death who took a plea deal and is expected to testify at trial, Achille made his opening remarks. Duran said.
Some men also allegedly threw away the swiped cash on social media.
“They go on social media and start bragging that they have this influx of cash,” Achille said. “They make it shine like it’s Christmas Day.”
Boatwright’s attorney, Joseph Kumock, said his client was asleep at the home at the time of the murder and the cell phone data linked to it was a community phone used by several men. When he appeared on social media with the money that prosecutors mentioned, it was Allen’s and not Boatwright’s, he said.
Newsom’s attorney also argued that his client was not at the scene.
If convicted of first-degree murder, Boatwright, 28, Williams, 26, and Newsom, 24, face up to life in prison. He is also facing robbery charges.
Allen, 26, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder.
The rapper, whose stage name is “Ex-Ten-To-Twenty-Year-Old,” was a platinum-selling rising star who expressed prejudice and depression in his songs, but he Several arrests also sparked outrage, including charges that he Beat up and raped his girlfriend badly..
With post wires
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