YNW Melly’s double murder trial postponed again
The double murder trial for YNW Melly has been pushed back roughly a month before it was scheduled to begin. The Fourth District Court of Appeals granted a delay to January 2027 after Broward Circuit Court Judge Martin Fein previously ruled it would start in September.
The 26-year-old Florida rapper (real name Jamell Demons) is accused of killing his childhood friends YNW Sakchaser (real name Anthony Williams) and YNW Juvy (real name Christopher Thomas Jr) in October 2018.
Police claimed Melly and YNW Bortlen staged the crime scene to seem like a drive-by shooting. Sakchaser and Juvy suffered multiple gunshot wounds, with Bortlen then allegedly driving their bodies to an emergency room.
Following the decision to delay the trial, Melly’s lawyer, Raven Liberty, revealed her disappointment and targeted the justice system.
“We’re disappointed that today’s hearing was yet another win for the State of Florida, allowing more time to subject my client to inhumane treatment,” she said, according to the Miami Herald. “Every American should be concerned about this abuse of the justice system and basic Constitutional rights at the hands of Broward State’s Attorney Harold Pryor and his team of prosecutors.”
Liberty added, “If this denial of basic Constitutional rights was not outrageous enough, most of this time has been spent in solitary confinement in conditions worse than death row.”
Melly, best known for his hit single ‘Murder on My Mind’, has now spent around six and a half years behind bars after the first trial ended in a hung jury in July 2023. By the time the new trial date starts, the rapper will have spent eight years in prison without a conviction.