Judge Recuses Lead Prosecutor In YNW Melly’s Double Murder Re-Trial

FLORIDA – The Broward County State Attorney’s office must find a new prosecutor in the double-murder re-trial of rapper YNW Melly.

A judge granted the defense’s motion to recuse Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley, who has been leading the state’s five-year probe in the rapper’s double-murder trial.

The judge found that Bradley can no longer serve as a prosecutor in the case if the defense was planning to call her as a witness regarding the credibility of one of the investigators, according to reports.

YNW Melly’s defense team also asked the judge to bar the entire Broward County State Attorney’s Office, but that request was denied.

The motion stemmed from an alleged Brady violation, which relates to the disclosure of information or evidence in a trial. Defense attorneys claimed that prosecutors concealed how the lead detective in the case asked a deputy to lie about how a search warrant was served.

Assistant State Attorney Michelle Boutros, who works for the Broward office, testified on Friday that she overheard Miramar Police Detective Mark Moretti, lead investigator in the case against YNW Melly, whose real name is Jamell Demons, ask a Broward County deputy to lie about being present when Moretti executed a search warrant outside his jurisdiction last Oct., forcibly seizing a phone from the rapper’s mother as part of a witness tampering investigation.

Defense attorney Jamie Benjamin said that information should’ve been given in to Melly’s defense team because they could have used it to discredit Moretti during the rapper’s murder trial which ended in July with a hung jury.

Prosecutors pointed to the fact that an attorney for the Florida rapper’s mother was present when her phone was taken and would have known the deputy wasn’t present at that time.

The detective and the state are both denying any wrongdoing.

The judge also ruled that the state attorney cannot be called to testify about the alleged Brady violation.

Jury selection for Melly’s re-trial is set to begin this week, but the judge pushed has delayed it for a week on Friday and has set hearings to deal with the obstruction allegations.

Melly, 24, is accused of killing his two best friends, YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvie back in 2018. Both men were part of YNW collective as a rap group.

He faces a possible death sentence if convicted.

Photo credit: NBC Miami