He’s a rapper who had nearly everything going for him.
Signed to Young Thug’s label, and working with the likes of Kanye West, YNW Melly (real name: Jamell Demons) racked up nearly 100 million listens on SoundCloud and had a promising future in Hip Hop.
But suddenly, on February 13, 2019, Melly was arrested for the deaths of two members of his rap crew, and charged with first-degree murder. Under Florida law, Melly and his alleged co-conspirator YNW Bortlen (real name: Cortlen Henry) face either life in prison with no chance of parole, or — worse yet — the death penalty, if convicted. (N.B.: If the Florida prosecutor intends to seek the death penalty in the YNW Melly case, s/he must notify the court within 45 days of the arraignment of his/her intent to do so.)
So how did this 19-year-old manchild go from rising star to facing capital punishment? Let’s break down the facts.
Who Is YNW Melly?
Jamell Demons was born in May 1999 in Gifford, FL, located north of Palm Beach County in the Vero Beach district. It’s here, in a district steeped in African-American history — and home to some of the most prominent families in Black America, including the Jackson, McGriff, Hart, York, Bryant, Moore and Williams families — that YNW (short for “Young Nigga World”) Melly first began uploading his music to SoundCloud when he was just 15 years old. As he slowly, but surely, began building an online presence, he began working with the likes of Lil’B before signing to Young Thug’s label.
He then collaborated with Kanye West on the hit track, “Multiple Personalities,” a track which is YNW Melly’s only charting single to date.
The Night Of The Alleged Murders
On October 26, 2018, two members of Melly’s crew are shot and killed. The victims — YNW Juvy (Christopher Thomas Jr., 19) and YNW Sakchaser (Anthony Williams, 21) — were last seen alive reportedly at approximately 3:00 a.m. in Broward County, Florida. At approximately 4:00 a.m., they both arrived at the Memorial Hospital Miramar, near Fort Lauderdale, each with multiple gunshot wounds. Both subsequently died from their injuries.
That night, YNW Melly took to Twitter to share his grief with his followers.
YNW Melly’s Arrest
Simply put, Melly’s perceived involvement with the crime has to do with an unfortunately-timed documentary and a subsequent Genius breakdown video.
On December 4, 2018, Melly’s official documentary — titled, simply, MELLY — was dropped, and it documented the young rapper’s rise to the top. Juvy and Sakchaser are both heavily featured in the documentary, and their deaths are explained at the end of the video as Melly and his mother reveal that they are moving from Florida to Atlanta.
Just seven days later, on December 12, 2018, a Genius breakdown video for “Murder on My Mind” is released. Perhaps cognizant of the woefully ill-timed optics, Melly is heard saying, “I’m a pussy murderer. I murder the vagina. And I murder the beat. I am not no hu—human murderer.”
And it’s the look in his eye as he stumbles over “human murderer” that subsequently goes viral and triggers a police investigation that leads, ultimately, to his arrest and arraignment.
According to TMZ, who obtained a copy of YNW Melly’s booking report, the police say that YNW Bortlen was the one who presented with Sakchaser and Juvy at the hospital where the duo subsequently died. However, when the police searched the car, they found a shell casing in the backseat, which led them to believe that the victims’ murders happened in the back seat of the car, and YNW Melly and YNW Bortlen staged the entire “drive-by shooting” scenario. Additionally, police say surveillance video revealed that the quartet all left in the same car, which contradicted YNW Melly’s earlier statement about a drive-by shooting. However, no forensic evidence in the case tying the bullet to the murders — or to YNW Melly — has yet been released.
The Fallout
Rightly or wrongly, YNW Melly’s past seems to be considered a factor against him, as is his current single.
When he was 16-years-old, Melly was involved in a shootout near Vero Beach High School. He ultimately served time as a result of his ties to the shooting, when he was convicted of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of discharging a firearm in public.
Additionally, in June 2018, Melly was arrested on a charge of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana and drug equipment possession.
So, Melly isn’t exactly what one would call a saint on Earth. While it’s against the Florida corpus delecti doctrine to use someone’s past crimes against them in a current charge, the poor optics of the matter are self-evident.
Then there’s the newest single, “Murder On My Mind” (viewable atop this article) that, according to The Fader, will be introduced at trial as evidence of his guilt. While this is a bit of a reach, per the outlet, the Broward County district attorney feels it’s a relevant factor, and legal scholars are trying to get this evidence excluded. To wit:
“Charis E. Kubrin, Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at University of California, Irvine, wants to see rap lyrics excluded from the courtroom in almost all cases. Her research indicates that the benefits of using lyrics in court are far outweighed by their misleading impact when read out to a jury. No other genre, she says, is treated as plain autobiography — David Byrne wasn’t actually a “Psycho Killer” — but rap musicians at every level have to contend with their lyrics being read as incriminating journal entries. Jurors and judges are unlikely to understand the conventions of rap, the exaggerations and fictions built into its foundations, or even the line between art and artist.”
And then there’s yet another charge that’s been levied against him. According to XXL (via VeroNews), YNW Melly and his alleged accomplice, YNW Bortlen, are currently being investigated in the 2017 shooting death of an Indian River County Sheriff named Gary Chambliss.
Captain Tony Consalo, head of the Sheriff’s Department of Investigations, said that while he cannot confirm or deny if the two rappers are suspects in Chambliss’s murder, he felt that their current charges merited a re-opening of the investigation and subsequent questioning of their involvement.
“After that shooting in Miramar, our detectives will be following up for possible information in connection to the Garry Chambliss homicide. Perhaps, given their current situation, they might be able to shed some light on the case.”
Consalo went on to say that, according to an unnamed “source,” Melly and Bortlen were present on the night of Chambliss’s death. Both rappers were standing in a group when a member of the group (it’s unclear who) threw an empty bottle at a passing car. The car’s driver then opened fire on the group, which caused one of the rappers (again, Consalo didn’t make clear which one) to return fire. Chambliss, who was caught in the crossfire, was hit with one of the bullets and subsequently died from his injuries.
Under Florida law, the murder of a police officer — whether intentional or not — carries an automatic first-degree murder charge, which carries the automatic penalty of either life in prison without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.
While this news is, no doubt, disturbing, it begs an even bigger question: why did it take this long for the long arm of Florida law to make YNW Melly face repercussions for these charges? Either Melly is a serial killer who needed to be stopped a long time ago, and the Florida legal machine failed miserably in protecting the public, or the long arm of Florida law is looking to pin bodies on him to take him out because they have a vendetta.
Melly and Cortlen’s trials have no date as of press time.
Lock him up, throw away the key.
I SEE ANOTHER INNOCENT BLACK MAN HAS BEEN SET UP BY THE CORRUPT SYSTEM IN MAGA COUNTRY!!! SMFH!!!
Yes, the system killed those people!
youre a stupid fuck lmao
lol you a bum
u dumb as hell lmao …
I want at least a paragraph on why you think he killed them and why he would pick up all the bullet casing but leave one in a plastic bag that shit don’t hold water and i put that on god that you can’t do it. Make sure the paragraph makes sence you don’t even know what your talking about you probably don’t even want to believe a black male can be innocent you the real dumb as Fuck outta here yb.
I want at least a paragraph on why you think he killed them and why he would pick up all the bullet casing but leave one in a plastic bag that shit don’t hold water and i put that on god that you can’t do it. Make sure the paragraph makes sence you don’t even know what your talking about you probably don’t even want to believe a black male can be innocent you the real dumb as Fuck outta here yb.
both of these are meant for DaTruth he a retared
“N.B.: If the Florida prosecutor intends to seek the death penalty in the YNW Melly case, s/he must notify the court within 45 days of the arraignment of his/her intent to do so.)”, seems like y’all want him to get death
He killed 3 people you clown, what you expect him to get a party?!?
no muthafucka im saying that it seems they want the worst instead of laying back & watching it go down
Everything you need to know: He’s done.
Never heard of this one charting hit
Waiting in the trial, but this looks suspect as hell. How fucking High was this idiot to leave a shell casing in the car? Dumb as fuck.
You can’t get that high off weed. Lol a career criminal whose destined for fame and fortune is gonna clear a whole car of multiple casings but forget to grab the one right in front of him in his own seat. Ugh here’s your sign folks. If melly wanted em dead he woulda hired someone to do it. Ain’t no way he pulled that trigger especially since he was sitting right next to him. Did the cops not even interview him or check his hand or arm or whole body for any proof that undoubtedly woulda been easily found unless you wanna say melly was wearing a whole body hazmat suit. Pretty sure if he went that far outta the way to cover it up he damn sure woulda picked up all the casings it’s not that hard. Ugh my dude how many rounds I got left in that mag all alright so we need to make sure to grab all 4 shells homie. I can see it now damn bro i forgot to get that one that somehow landed in a clear plastic bag at your feet. My bad bro guess we’re gonna do life now.
Honestly, I’ve never heard of him. Who the phuck is this guy? Why does he have 1 million IG followers?
its weird to me how he was basically no one, but now that hes killed some people, his songs went number 1 for that week, his face n story are all over sites like this. yall give murderers publicity, but i get it, yall in competition with the other sites. if you dont do it, they will. making young rappers see that if they just kill some people, they might just be #1 and get all this attention. it sells to be a killer. do it for the culture. smdh.
Man, eff these gangbangers … Give them the death penalty .. they aint ish anyway .. just garbage taking up space in this world .. them 2 fools who died, eff them 2 .. 2 less gangbangers .. too all you thugs out there, your gang homies will kill you faster than your rivals will .. str8 up .. they music suck anyway ..
I want at least a paragraph on why you think he killed them and why he would pick up all the bullet casing but leave one in a plastic bag that shit don’t hold water and i put that on god that you can’t do it. Make sure the paragraph makes sence i bet you don’t even know what your talking about you and probably don’t even want to believe a black male can be innocent you dumb asf like Fuck outta here you nut as yb.
I will provide you that paragraph…
The man was obviously stupid enough to kill two people and stage a drive-by shooting thinking he would get away with it. He was also stupid enough to drive them to the hospital afterwards. So it isn’t outside the realm of possibility to believe that the same faulty reasoning caused him to put a casing in a plastic bag for whatever ridiculous reason. A stupid mind works in stupid ways. There is no point in trying to decipher it, and the courts won’t waste their time either. They don’t care if the casing was in a bag or jammed up his buddy’s ass. It was in the car. That is all the reason they need. The “nobody would be stupid enough to do…” defense does not hold up in court. The burden of proof is on him to show that the casing wasn’t his. It was in a car he was known to be in.
Note: I understand that technically he did not drive his friends to the hospital. He got his sidekick to do it.
Man, these are some ugly muthafuckas …
So this dude whose grown up in and out of jail, and whose by his own words handled a firearm for a long time is gonna shoot his best friends then put some gloves on and stick a single 40 casing in a plastic bag and leave it at his feet in the spot he was sitting in? Even a fucking idiot doesn’t make that mistake. If he orchestrated it I can guarenfuckingtee you he woulda shot them from outside the car. No life long criminal is gonna make those mistakes. And the police say cell phone records and k9 searches indicate no one else was near them at the drive by an that no one called 911 for shots fired. Is it so crazy to belive they were killed by someone who might just know what there doing. I know I sure af wouldn’t commit a drive by at 3am in front of a soul. I’d follow them til they stopped somewhere where no one was arround then do it. Whose to say the police know melly accidentally killed that cop but can’t prove it in court. Cops are human too and all it takes is a few veteran’s of the force to make it all happen. So whose to say they didn’t take matters into their own hands. If you’ve ever been a cop or grew up around any than you know for a fact. There’s not a stronger gang in the country. They wI’ll do almost if not anything for each other and are literally some of the only members of society trained to get away with it. If your trained too catch a criminal than at that same time your being trained to be one. That doesnt make you one of course but if emotinally triggered they could be one if they wanted too. There in such a tight gang i could see an entire agency working together to take him down and if they know but can’t prove mell did kill there brother then none of em would even want paid for it. They could just as easily all lie and no one would be the wiser. Shit just seems fishy too me. All it might of toOK was for one cop who was close to the slain cop to hear murder on my mind for him to immidietEly lose his mind since he would have already known it could of been melly. Idk just seems really fuckin sloppy for some career criminals who are also in a gang and have been to jail. Melly prolly new forensics can usually determine the distance of a shot fired by the time he was 9 years old. Plus he’d be risking all the blowback debris from firing a gun so close. There’s no way they didn’t know better lol so in less some major drug or alcohol abuse is proven I just cant buy it. I mean your saying him and dude picked every shell up outta the car but one that just so happened the be in a plastic bag at dudes feet lol come on. Im not saying the cops set him up but I am saying someone sure af did. Whose got the most to gain from it. Guess we’ll see.
i 100% agree