Left: YNW Melly, photo courtesy of Broward County Sheriff’s Office via Getty Images. Right: YNW Bortlen, photo via Miami-Dade County.
YNW Melly was charged with witness tampering in his own double homicide case Tuesday night (October 3), the South Florida Sun Sentinel reports and online arrest records confirm. Melly (born Jamell Maurice Demons) and Cortlen Malik Henry (aka YNW Bortlen) are accused of murdering their childhood friends and crew members Christopher Thomas (YNW Juvy) and Anthony Williams (YNW Sakchaser) in 2018.
Melly has been denied bond on multiple occasions, including last week. His first murder trial ended in July with a hung jury, resulting in a mistrial. His retrial is scheduled to begin next Monday, October 9. Before that happens, though, Broward County Circuit Judge John J. Murphy will rule Friday on a motion filed by Melly’s attorneys to dismiss the case entirely, on the grounds that the prosecution failed to alert them of potential misconduct by the case’s lead detective, Mark Moretti.
Bortlen had been out on bond with an ankle monitor for two years when he was arrested in Miami Monday night (October 2). His trial was originally scheduled to begin last week but was postponed at the last minute to January 2024. Per the Sun Sentinel, his warrant cited instances in which he sought to stop witnesses from testifying truthfully — or, in some cases, testifying at all — during Melly’s first murder trial. Like Melly, he was formally charged with witness tampering Tuesday night.
The FADER has reached out to Melly and Bortlen’s attorneys for comment on the new charges.
