One of YNW Melly’s defense attorneys, Raven Liberty, is being investigated for allegations of witness tampering as the rapper is currently awaiting a retrial. YNW Melly, whose real name is Jamell Demons, attended a hearing on Monday. Liberty was not present because of a flight delay due to weather conditions, according to NBC Miami.
Although Liberty has not been charged, the rapper’s defense team said they need to speak with him to find out if he wants to keep Liberty on the team. The investigation could delay YNW Melly’s case. His attorneys said he hasn’t seen Liberty in person for over a year, per Local 10.
“Is she under investigation? The answer is yes,” Broward County Judge Martin Fein said. “The only other question Mr. Demons has to decide does he want to go forward with her, or does he want conflict-free counsel which he is certainly entitled to.”
As Blavity reported, the rapper is currently incarcerated at the Broward County Jail in Fort Lauderdale. He has been detained since February 2019 on double murder charges. The rapper is being accused of killing his childhood friends Chris Thomas and Anthony Williams during a 2018 recording session and staging it t appear like a drive-by shooting.
After a first trial ended in a mistrial in 2023, another date was scheduled for September.
In November 2023, YNW Melly filed a lawsuit accusing the Broward Sheriff’s Office of cruel treatment behind bars and asked a Florida judge for his release, according to Newsweek. The lawsuit cited the rapper being detained “under conditions that violate the First, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.” It also noted that Demons has not been able to see or speak to his family in years.
Demons’s attorney Michael Pizzi Jr. said he hasn’t been able to see his client without glass separating them nor show him documents in private.
“It’s heartbreaking. Some days I don’t know if he’s alive in there,” the rapper’s mother Jamie King said. “I don’t know if something’s happened to him in there. I have no communication whatsoever.”
“The last time I heard my son’s voice on the phone said 2022. He was sad, but he was okay,” she added. “Now, I don’t know. I haven’t heard his voice.”
The Main Jail at Broward County Jail holds 1,538 male inmates. Most detainees are “awaiting trial or sentencing and are serving terms of less than a year,” according to Newsweek.
“Note, Mr. Demons has been placed on administrative segregation, which is a classification resulting in an alternate living assignment for an inmate whose placement in the general population poses a serious threat to the safety of staff or inmates, or life and property,” the Broward Sheriff’s Office told the news outlet in November.
