FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Jurors in the trial of three men accused of murdering rising rap star XXXTentacion concluded their fourth day of deliberations Monday by reviewing almost 1,200 text messages and several videos and photos seized from two of their cellphones.
Some of the videos and photos showed the defendants flashing fistfuls of $100 bills hours after the June 18, 2018, shooting of XXXTentacion outside a suburban Fort Lauderdale motorcycle dealership. He was killed by two armed robbers who stole $50,000 he was carrying in a Louis Vuitton bag.
There was also a photo of a story from a news website about the shooting, photos from shopping and dating apps, an apparently random photo of then-first lady Melania Trump, videos of one defendant in a pedicab with a woman and a Father’s Day greeting.
The jurors made their request in the afternoon, asking to see the data from the phones of alleged shooter Michael Boatwright, 28, and the accused getaway driver and ringleader Dedrick Williams, 26, from the day before and day of the shooting.
Williams sent and received more than 950 text messages during that time and Boatwright had more than 200. Jurors had to crowd near a projection screen at the front of the courtroom to read them; they could not be read from the gallery.
The jurors did not ask for any data from the phones of alleged second gunman Trayvon Newsome, 24, or alleged co-conspirator Robert Allen, 26. Allen testified against his former friends after pleading guilty last year to second-degree murder.
Boatwright, Williams and Newsome are charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery and face mandatory life sentences if convicted. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. The jurors have deliberated about 15 hours since getting the case late Wednesday at the end of four-weeks of testimony. Deliberations will resume Tuesday.
XXXTentacion, whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy,…
Read the full article here
