YNW Melly has been charged with witness tampering in his double murder case, just days before his retrial is scheduled to begin.
An affidavit obtained by XXL on Wednesday (October 4) confirmed that Melly (born Jamell Demons) was hit with the additional charge.
His alleged accomplice in the case, YNW Bortlen (born Cortlen Malik Henry), has also been charged with witness tampering.
The duo are accused of using an inmate named Terrence Mathis to communicate on the phone with Melly’s ex-girlfriend, Mariah Hamilton, and her mom, Felicia Holmes, to convince them not to testify in the case.
The affidavit revealed that Bortlen and Mathis had 60 different phone calls between March and August 2023, in which they used various coded language to hide their intentions.
Law&Crime Network’s Bryson Paul added that Melly’s phone privileges have been restricted for much of 2023, with the rapper being on 23/1 lockdown inside Broward County Jail.
Last month, Mariah Hamilton accused police of threatening to put her behind bars if she didn’t cooperate in the case against her ex-boyfriend.
YNW Bortlen’s witness tampering charges first came to light on Monday (October 2) following a home raid in Miami, Florida. He was subsequently booked in Miami-Dade County.
Bortlen was scheduled to begin his trial on the day he was taken into police custody, which is why his day in court has now been moved to January 12, 2024. He has been out on bond with a monitor since August 2021 for his alleged ties to the 2018 murders.
Melly’s retrial is scheduled to begin on October 9 after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in July’s trial.
The 24-year-old stands accused of murdering his friends YNW Sakchaser (real name Anthony Williams) and YNW Juvy (real name Christopher Thomas Jr.) in October 2018, and then staging the crime scene to look like a drive-by shooting.
Judge John Murphy III announced on July 22 that the case had ended in a mistrial, despite three days of deliberation. “These types of decisions, they’re hard decisions,” he said regarding the inconclusive finale.
The first-degree murder charges took four and a half years to process through the legal system, with Melly being denied bond since his arrest back in February 2019.
