After serving more than six years in prison, YNW Melly will continue waiting for his double murder retrial from the inside. A Florida judge denied the 25-year-old rapper's release on bond the third time he's been turned down since his arrest last year.
Real name Jamell Demons, Melly has been the focus of a high-profile legal drama since being charged with the October 2018 murder of his close friends and fellow YNW crew members Christopher Thomas Jr. and Anthony Williams. Prosecutors say the murders were made to look like a drive-by shooting, a contention Melly and his legal team fiercely dispute.
This week, Melly's lawyers made another attempt at pretrial release with an offer of house arrest and 24/7 electronic monitoring. They also claimed he is being unjustly held while facing what they said are "cruel and inhumane" conditions in the Broward County Jail.
The judge sided with prosecutors who cited what they called "overwhelming evidence" against the rapper, including phone records and ballistic reports. They also mentioned new witness tampering allegations that have emerged in recent months.
For Melly, this is another blow in a case that has dragged on for years without an outcome. His first trial was in 2023, which resulted in a hung jury and a mistrial. Now, with a retrial set for September 2025, the stakes could not be higher: If found guilty, he faces the death penalty.
Outside the courtroom, Melly's legal team claims the conditions of his confinement are catching up with him. Melly alleged in a federal lawsuit he filed in November 2024 that the Broward Sheriff's Office had violated his constitutional rights by placing him in extreme isolation. He has been held in administrative segregation for years, the complaint says, and denied phone calls, visitation, watching television, or even access to newspapers.
"They're trying to break him mentally," Michael Pizzi Jr., Melly's lawyer, said in an interview, referring to the police in Miramar and the state attorney's office there, who are prosecuting Melly. "They want to do to him in his mind what they have been unable to accomplish in court."
The suit describes a harrowing array of maltreatment, claiming his treatment is "so gross a departure from the standards of reasonable treatment that it shocks the conscience" and constitutes cruel and unusual punishment despite having been convicted of no crime. It also raises questions about due process, race, and the mental toll of extended time in solitary confinement, particularly for someone who still awaits his day in court.
For now, Melly is in handcuffs, waiting, and as that retrial is hundreds of months away, he fights not only for his freedom but for his sanity in a system he charges is trying to crack him from within himself.
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