Credit: Wikimedia

YNW Melly returned to court on July 16th after the judge confirmed he was sticking to September 10th as the retrial date. The rapper (real name Jamell Demons) has been waiting for the outcome of his double murder charges for years.

The state attempted to push back the retrial with a motion for continuance. However, Judge Martin S Fein declined and urged the prosecution and defence team to get the trial underway.

Melly was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder in February 2019. He was accused of killing his two friends, YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy, in South Florida on October 26th, 2018.

Miramar Police alleged that Melly and YNW Bortlen staged the crime scene to give off the appearance of a drive-by shooting. The pair suffered multiple gunshot wounds, with Bortlen then allegedly driving their bodies to an emergency room.

Melly has been behind bars since 2019, with the first trial ending with a mistrial in 2023. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.

In November last year, he requested an immediate release from prison due to cruel treatment. “[YNW Melly] Jamell Demons seeks his immediate release because he is being illegally detained under conditions that violate the First, Fifth, Sixth, Eight and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” a lawsuit read.

“Demons is a Black male whose current detention conditions shock the conscience and could not even be imagined in this day and age even in a third-world country that has no guard rails protecting human decency and dignity.”

Melly is best known for his hit single ‘Murder on My Mind’, which has over a billion streams on Spotify. He’s collaborated with Kanye West, Juice WRLD, Lil Uzi Vert and others.