YNW Melly has spoken out about the poor treatment he’s received while incarcerated, alleging that he has been threatened and abused by prison staff.
Although Melly claims his phone privileges have been taken away, the “Murder On My Mind” artist still managed to post a pair of lengthy pleas for help exposing the alleged disorderly conduct by jail employees on Monday (December 12) to his Instagram.
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“As of this moment today I am officially in fear of my life,” he began. “A new Captain named Hubert and XO Jenkins have taken over the jail for two weeks now and have handed out even harsher punishments for me than the previous ones in place. Since December 1 I have been moved and housed on a unit that holds 24 inmates at once.
“I am the only inmate being housed on the vacant unit, with no phone privilege, no television and no access to a newspaper,” Melly added. “They are watching my every move on camera making sure I don’t use the phone to tell the world how I am being mistreated, discriminated, threatened physically, harassed. When I come out of my cell for the 1 hour a day, all other inmates in the adjoining dorms must go back in their cell. I am being subjected to cruel and unusual treatment at the hands of deputies and high-ranking staff of the Broward Sheriffs Office.
He continued: “I have been threatened by Deputies, Lieutenants and Sergeants that say ‘they will hide me from the world’ and threaten to ‘beat my ass everyday and if I tell my lawyers they will lie and say I hit them first.’ Words from Sergeant Anthony Kidd and Lieutenant Jean Baptiste. I have literally been hidden from the World so I have no other choice but to believe the next step is them beating 1/2 to death like they do to other inmates almost daily here at the main ail in Broward County.”
In a follow-up post, YNW Melly expanded on his phone privileges have being revoked and explained that he’s not even allowed to contact family members for the holidays.
“I cant call my family or lawyers to notify them if I have been beaten or harassed,” he captioned the second post. “They say my phone privileges are taken permanently because all of the infractions over the last seven months. THAT IS A LIE! They took my phone privileges indefinitely off of my 1″ violation for using another inmates pin to talk on the phone when I am not allowed to use the phone.”
YNW Melly — born Jamell Demons — has been locked up since being arrested in February 2019 on double-murder charges for the killings of his two friends YNW Sakchaser (Anthony Williams) and YNW Juvy (Christopher Thomas Jr) in October 2018.
A Florida appeals court ruled on November 9 that prosecutors could actually seek the death penalty for Melly if he’s convicted.
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Florida’s District Court of Appeal overturned Judge Andrew Siegel’s ruling from the summer where he said prosecutors couldn’t use capital punishment against Melly because prosecutors “had failed to give Melly and his attorneys proper notice that they planned to do so.”
The appeals court argued that Melly and his legal team were given enough time since the idea of the death penalty was introduced at the same time as his original charges.
“We find that the state complied with its statutory obligations when it filed its notice of intent to seek the death penalty within 45 days of arraignment,” Judge Spencer D. Levine wrote when reinstating the death penalty option. “The fact that the state filed a superseding indictment, requiring a second arraignment, does not vitiate the already filed and timely notice of intent. Notice is notice.”
The ruling is only temporary as the death penalty provision is expected to be heard by Florida’s Supreme Court at a later date this year.
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The 23-year-old pleaded not guilty and has maintained his innocence against the charges. He remains without an official trial date after it was once again delayed in July.
