Defense in XXXTentacion murder trial suggests Drake may be linked to rapper’s murder
Lawyers for the defense of three men accused of killing rapper XXXTentacion have suggested that rap superstar Drake may have been behind the murder in 2018.
Suspects Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsom and Dedrick Williams accused of fatal murder outside a motorcycle shop in Florida in what prosecutors believe was a robbery turned into cold-blooded murder.
Each suspect has been charged with first-degree murder.
But the three defendants’ legal team argued that investigators did not investigate XXXTentacion’s simmering feud with Drake after the 20-year-old’s untimely death. The rapper, whose real name is Jasei Onfroy, once claimed on social media that if he ever turned up dead, it would be Drake, though he later retracted that bold statement.
The rapper’s death comes four months after 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, which the defense contends caused the heavily scrutinized Broward County Sheriff’s Office to quickly solve XXXTentacion’s murder without fully investigating other suspects, including the celebrity. .
“For Broward County, for everyone involved, it was a nightmare,” one of the lawyers, Mauricio Padilla, told jurors.
Prosecutors say the shooting was the result of a botched robbery and there is no evidence linking Drake to the fatal shooting.
Boatwright, Trayvon and Williams are accused of going to Riva Motorsports on June 18, 2018 to buy masks to carry out armed robberies, but decided to target XXXTentacion when they saw him in a store, prosecutors said.
As the rapper drove out of the store in his BMW, Williams cut off the sports car with his SUV, while Boatwright and Newsom rushed in XXXTentacion’s car to rob him, prosecutor Pascal Achille said in court.
The trio seized about $50,000, which XXXTentacion kept in a Louis Vuitton bag before Boatwright shot him multiple times “without any provocation,” she said.
A trio of men tied to the shooting by CCTV footage and mobile phone clips, as well as testimony from Robert Allen, the fourth person implicated in the rapper’s death, who negotiated a plea deal and is expected to testify during the trial, Achilles said at the time of her discovery.
Some of the men also allegedly showed the money they stole on social media.
“They go on social media and start bragging that they have an influx of money,” Achilles said. “They light up like it’s Christmas.”
Boatwright’s lawyer, Joseph Kimok, said his client was asleep at home at the time of the murder, and the mobile phone data associated with him was a public phone used by several men. According to him, although he appeared with the social media money that prosecutors mentioned, the money belonged to Allen, not Boatwright.
Newsom’s lawyer also claimed that his client was not at the scene.
If Boatwright, 28, Williams, 26, and Newsom, 24, are convicted of first-degree murder, they face life in prison. They are also charged with robbery.
Allen, 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last year.
The rapper, whose stage name is pronounced “ex-ex-ex-ten-ta-see-YAWN”, was a rising platinum-selling star who delved into prejudice and depression in his songs, but also caused an uproar due to multiple arrests. , including claims that he brutally beat and insulted his girlfriend.
With mail wires
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