Jury selection in the murder trial of YNW Melly was postponed for a week, and maybe more, as lawyers and Broward Circuit Judge Andrew Siegel work their way through a flurry of last-minute motions and hearings.
Rapper YNW Melly, whose birth name is Jamell Demons, and Cortlen Henry are accused of killing 21-year-old Anthony Williams and 19-year-old Christopher Thomas Jr. on October 26th, 2018.
Miramar police said Demons shot both men and that he and Henry staged the crime scene to make it look like a drive-by shooting.
The two victims were also aspiring rappers and apparently friends of Demons. He even took to social media the day after police say he shot them to mourn their deaths.
Jury selection was initially scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but was postponed until Wednesday. Demons’ Twitter account posted a message late Tuesday boasting, “”Y’all can uncross y’all [fingers], I’ll be home this year.”
By the end of Wednesday, the judge dropped any discussion of being able to start this week. Attorneys are due back in court next Tuesday for more pre-trial hearings. Siegel said if everything is finished by Tuesday, jury selection could start the next day.
But that, he said, is not likely.
Jury selection is likely to run through most of May, if not all of it. Most jurors summoned to the courthouse through the end of April and beginning of May will first be directed to the penalty phase trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz. Only those excused from that case will be considered for other trials.
Both Demons and Henry are charged with first-degree murder.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office has said it plans to seek the death penalty against Melly if convicted.
Siegel said the Demons case received less media coverage than the Parkland shooting and won’t last as long, which should make jury selection run more smoothly.
But he did not set a firm date for when selection would begin.
Tell us your thoughts...