YNW Melly, an American rapper, is alive. Recently, the internet has been abuzz with rumours that renowned American rapper YNW Melly has passed away, leaving his devoted fans grappling with shock and concern. On the other hand, rumours were also making rounds on social media that he had been released from prison.
We have both good news and bad news. The good news is that rapper YNW Melly is alive. But the bad news is that he is still incarcerated and waiting for his trial, in which he is found guilty, he could face capital punishment.
YNW Melly’s Career
YNW Melly has seen significant success in rap music’s ever-changing and competitive world. He has carved a nice niche with his talent and hard work. His breakout single ‘Murder on My Mind’ paved the way for him to sign with 300 Entertainment and release the song as a single for his debut commercial mixtape, I Am You, in 2018. The album received widespread acclaim. He released its follow-up album, We All Shine, in 2019.
These mixtapes did well, made it to the Billboard 200, and received gold certifications from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). We All Shine consisted of the hit song ‘Mixed Personalities’, which featured the notable artist Kanye West. Soon after the release of the song, he was imprisoned. But, it did not stop him from creating music and garnering commercial success behind bars. He released hit single ‘223s’ while Incarcerated, which featured 9lokkNine, and ‘Suicidal,’ both reached the Billboard Hot 100-top 40.
His debut album’ Melly vs Melvin’ (2019), ranked number eight on the Billboard 200 chart, and its sequel ‘Just Matter of Slime’ (2021), ranked number eleven. Despite their ranking, these albums received mixed reviews and criticism as Melly could not be directly involved with them due to imprisonment.
Early Life
YNW Melly, full name Jamell Maurice Demons, was born on May 1, 1999, and raised in Gifford, Florida, by a single mother, Jamie Demons-King. He has never met his father and does not know who he is. His mother was a teenager when she became pregnant with him and gave birth to him in her ninth grade. She faced financial challenges, forcing her to move to a poorer part of Gifford.
Poverty and limited access to standard education left Melly to survive the tough neighborhood on his own. He joined the Bloods gang at a young age. He began posting his songs on SoundCloud when he was 15. But trouble soon followed him as he was arrested in late 2015 for shooting at a group of students near Vero Beach High School. He was convicted of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated assault, and discharging a firearm in public, for which he had to serve several months in prison. He has a younger brother who is also a rapper, YNW BSlime.
What are the charges on YNW Melly?
YNW Melly has faced several charges and has also served prison time. On October 19, 2015, he was arrested on three counts of aggravated assault with a weapon and one count of discharging a firearm in public. He served a year in prison and was released on probation.
In 2017, he was again in hot water and arrested for violating probation. He served several months of jail time and was released in 2018. On June 30, 2018, he was arrested in Fort Myers, Florida, for possession of marijuana, drug paraphernalia, and possession of weapons or ammunition by a convicted felon.
In February 2019, he was arrested and charged with two counts of premeditated murder. This time, due to the severity of the crime, he is faced with either life imprisonment without the possibility of parole or a death penalty if he is found guilty. He is also a suspect in the 2017 murder of a Gifford sheriff’s deputy.
In March 2019, Melly pleaded not guilty to the double-murder charges and his trial ended with a hung jury (when the jury cannot reach a unanimous vote). The case went into a retrial in October 2023 and is currently ongoing. As of February 2024, his trial is currently paused due to the adjudication of a video as evidence.
Trail of YNW Melly
On February 12, 2019, Melly was charged with two counts of premeditated murder. It is related to the October 2018 shooting and killing of two rappers, YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They were both long-time friends and associates of Melly.
According to authorities, Melly conspired with another colleague, YNW Bortlen, real name Cortlen Malik Henry, to stage the double-murder of his two friends and rappers, Anthony D’Andre Williams, professionally known as YNW Sakchaser and Christopher Jermaine Thomas Jr. YNW Juvy. Melly is accused of making it appear as if they were fatally shot in a drive-by shooting.
Melly turned himself in on February 13, 2019. If found guilty, he either faces lifetime imprisonment without the possibility of parole or capital punishment (death penalty). If Melly is convicted, he would become one of the first defendants to be sentenced under Governor Ron DeSantis’s new non-unanimous death sentence law, which states that the jury will only require eight out of twelve jurors to vote for a death penalty rather than being unanimous for the sentence to carry out.
The jury selection for the Melly trial began on April 11, 2023. The trial started on June 12, 2023. The prosecutors demanded the death penalty. The autopsy report indicated that someone sitting in the back seat of the vehicle had fired the two people sitting in the front, contradicting Melly’s story of a drive-by shooting. It was later determined that Melly had been sitting behind in the back seat earlier that night.
The prosecutors presented forensic evidence to support their claim that Melly was the killer. Surveillance footage showed him being in the back seat of the car, where the experts said the shots were fired from. The prosecutors established that Melly shot his friends from inside the car; later, he and Henry parked the vehicle and staged a drive-by shooting by shooting back into the car after the victims had already been fatally injured, and Henry alone drove the victims to Memorial Hospital in Miramar, where they were pronounced dead.
The jury was given an Allen charge to persuade them to come to a unanimous vote, but after four days of deliberation, the jury declared a 9-3 vote, and a mistrial was declared on July 22, 2013. His new trial began on October 2, 2023.
In January 2024, his trial was put on hold indefinitely over the adjudication of a video from evidence about Melly’s life. The Broward County prosecutor Alexandra Buckelew told the media that she planned to submit Melly’s song ‘Murder on My Mind’ and his other songs, four cover albums, and eighteen studio files into evidence at his retrial, which prosecutors at his first trial did not do.
The first trial prosecutor, Kristine Bradley, argued, “We’re not going to get into that because that’s artistic expression. That’s not why we’re here today.” Melly’s defence attorney, Raven Liberty, has requested that Broward Circuit court Judge John Murphy not allow the prosecutors to use Melly’s songs and lyrics in his retrial, including his biggest hit, ‘Murder on my Mind,’ which has lyrics describing killing a friend by accidentally shooting him twice.
“To receive something this late in the game is just part and parcel of what they’ve been doing the entire time,” remarked the defence attorney.
The prosecutors also pleaded to Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy to reduce the threshold of the death penalty if Melly is found guilty, which was accepted. If convicted, Melly will face capital punishment with an 8-4 vote rather than a unanimous vote.
