Three new prosecutors are taking over the prosecution of YNW Melly in his double-murder retrial after the lead prosecutor, Kristine Bradley, was accused of withholding information.
Melly’s defense attorneys accused Bradley of withholding information that the lead investigator had previously been accused of asking a deputy to lie. On Tuesday, three new prosecutors filed an entry in the case.
According to previous reports, Assistant Attorney Michelle Boutrous testified that during an October 6 pretrial hearing, she was in a conference room with Mark Moretti, the lead detective in the case from the Miramar Police Department, and Jamie King, who is YNW Melly’s mother.
DID YOU MISS: YNW Melly hit with witness tampering charge ahead of his murder retrial next week
According to the testimony, Moretti wanted to confiscate King’s phone as part of an investigation into witness tampering.
During that time, Moretti was not within his jurisdiction but still confiscated King’s phone, as reported by Boutrous. Boutrous then testified that she overheard Moretti asking Broward County Deputy Adam Gorel to lie about being in the room when he served the search warrant.
I’m like in the Twilight Zone like this can’t really be happening, Boutrous testified. It was just a very awkward moment after Detective Moretti said that. I vividly remember what he said.
Despite Moretti overhearing the conversation, prosecutors allegedly said the exchange was a joke and irrelevant to the trial, claiming that the actual details of what happened had become jumbled.
Back in July, a mistrial was declared in YNW Melly’s case when the jurors were unable to reach a verdict after 14 hours of deliberations. Melly was accused of killing two of his friends, who were also rappers, and then staging the murders as a drive-by shooting in the Miami area in 2018.
DID YOU MISS: YNW Melly jurors wanted to convict him except for one woman
On Tuesday, during a hearing for the double-murder retrial, prosecutors requested additional time to familiarize themselves with the case they are now responsible for prosecuting.
Jury selection will begin on Wednesday morning.
Their plan is to bring in 150 potential jurors on Wednesday and Thursday to begin the process. They will start by asking about hardships and will continue with voir dire at a later time.
The 24-year-old rapper is currently incarcerated without bail.
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There are too many “mistakes” being made and issues popping up this dude is going to end up getting off on this and might only get convicted of maybe one of the lesser charges🤦🏾♀️