A jury on Monday convicted the three men accused of murdering Florida rapper XXXTentacion in Florida in 2018, following more than a week of deliberations.
The 20-year-old artist, whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy, was shot to death on June 18, 2018, outside of a motorcycle shop in Deerfield Beach, north of Miami.
In the attack, the rapper was in a car leaving Riva Motorsports when an SUV blocked his vehicle and two masked gunmen came out of it, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office said at the time. One repeatedly shot at the rapper, and the assailants grabbed a Louis Vuitton bag from the car with $50,000 inside and escaped in the SUV, authorities said.
26-year-old Dedrick Williams, 24-year-old Trayvon Newsome, and 28-year-old Michael Boatwright were each found guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery in Broward County court.
The trio had pleaded not guilty. A fourth person, 25-year-old Robert Allen, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year and testified for the prosecution against the other three.
The first-degree murder charges come with life sentences. Jury deliberations started March 8.
Prosecutors said that Boatwright was the gunman who opened fire, that Newsome was the other gunman and that Williams was the driver of the SUV. Surveillance video played in court showed the attack that unfolded in a parking lot, depicting the moment two masked gunmen target the rapper’s car with guns drawn and one appears to shoot through the driver’s side window.
The defense tried to cast doubt on Allen’s testimony and pointed to the failure of detectives to investigate XXXTentacion’s feud with rapper Drake, but prosecutors said there was no evidence linking Drake to the shooting.
Onfroy vaulted to stardom in 2017 after he uploaded the song “Look at Me” on SoundCloud, which climbed to No. 34 on the Billboard Hot 100. A few months later, he reportedly secured a $6 million record deal with a Capitol Music Group subsidiary. He gained a massive fan base for his music that spoke on depression and loneliness.
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