One month after the trial of three men accused of murdering rapper XXXTentacion began, closing arguments started Tuesday inside a Broward County courthouse.
Dedrick Williams, 26, Trayvon Newsome, 24, and Michael Boatwright, 28, are charged with the robbery and murder. A fourth defendant, Robert Allen, 25, has already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified for the prosecution against the other three.
All three men on trial could all receive life sentences if convicted of first-degree murder.
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In closing arguments, the prosecution pointed to the evidence, surveillance video, witness testimony, phone records, and bullets as proof that the three men on trial should go to prison for the killing.
In court Tuesday, jurors got another look at video of the suspects handling thousands of dollars in cash after the rapper's killing.
"This is their character, killers that within 24 hours after shooting the victim dead and stealing $50,000 from him, this is what they do, look how happy they look, how excited they look to have this money," said Pascale Achille, the Assistant State Prosecutor.
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Defense attorneys questioned a lot of the evidence brought forward by prosecutors, saying they're lacking DNA evidence and have nothing that places the defendants at the scene.
"This is not the kind of evidence that a reasonable jury can rely on to convict a man of murder and robbery," said George Edward Reres, who represents Newsome.
A Broward County Associate Medical Examiner and a firearms expert with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office testified in February, detailing the wounds XXXTentacion suffered when he was gunned down outside Riva Motorsports near Deerfield Beach in 2018.
The examiner testified the rapper, whose real name is Jahseh Onfroy, was struck three times in the neck, each wound just centimeters apart. The jury saw photos of the wounds, and the judge asked the photos not be turned toward the public.
“Three separate bullets. Was there an exit wound on wound A for Mr. Onfroy?” asked Achille.
“No,” answered Boiko. This means a projectile remained inside Onfroy, according to Boiko's testimony.
A firearms expert with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office testified that all three bullets came from the same weapon.
“The three bullets were fired by the same unknown 22-long rifle caliber firearm,” said William Ruiz Fontanez.
Last month, a judge ruled that rapper Drake, whose real name is Aubrey Graham, won't have to appear for a deposition because there's no evidence of his involvement in XXXTentacion's killing.
An attorney for Williams had tried to get Drake to appear at a deposition pre-trial, something the "Nice for What" rapper avoided. Defense attorney Mauricio Padilla cited an Instagram post from XXXTentacion in which he claimed, "If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi [Drake]. I’m snitching RN.” However, the post was quickly deleted and XXXTentacion later retracted that, claiming his account had been hacked.
