A jury seated in Florida has convicted three men over the death of late rapper, Jahseh Ricardo Onfroy, professionally known as XXXTentacion.
Michael Boatwright, 28, Dedrick Williams, 26, and Trayvon Newsome, 24 were all found guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery in Broward County court on Monday, NBC News reports.
The incident took place on the 18th of June, 2018, when two masked men attacked Onfroy as he drove out of a Florida RIVA Motorsports dealership.
Surveillance video played in the court showed one of the men appearing to shoot through the driver’s side window. The assailants also carted away a Louis Vuitton bag containing $50,000 from the rapper’s car and escaped in an SUV.
During the trial, prosecutors named Boatwright as the gunman who shot at the rapper, Newsome as his accomplice, and Williams as the driver of the SUVs with which they carried out the robbery.
While the trio pleaded not guilty, another suspect in the case, 25-year-old Robert Allen accepted a plea deal and testified for the prosecution against the other defendants.
During the trial, Mauricio Padilla, defence lawyer for William, fingered popular Canadian rapper, Drake, as a person of interest, and sought for an order to make the latter sit for a deposition.
According to Padilla, XXX and Drake had been feuding before his death. The lawyer referenced an Instagram post by the “Look at Me” rapper in which he tagged Drake’s account back in February 2018.
“If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi, I’m snitching right now,” the post read.
While the order was first granted by the judge, it was later quashed after Drake’s lawyers filed an objection, stating that “it is both unreasonable and oppressive to subpoena an out-of-state party who has not been mentioned in any reports, any investigation, or referenced to have any involvement” in the case. Prosecutors also stated that there was no evidence linking Drake to the shooting.
Boatwright, William, and Newsome are expected to appear in court on the 6th of April for sentencing.
