YNW Melly confers with an attorney at an October 6 hearing. Still from Law&Crime Network’s YouTube live stream of the hearing.
The State of Florida has added new charges to YNW Melly’s witness tampering case, NBC6 News reports. Court documents confirm that six new charges have been filed in Melly’s case, the case of YNW Bortlen — Melly’s co-defendant in a separate but connected homicide case stemming from the double murder of their friends YNW Juvy and YNW Sakchaser — and that of Terrence Mathis.
Mathis is a Broward County Jail inmate accused of helping Melly contact Bortlen, who was out on bond at the time of the alleged tampering. The state claims Bortlen and Mathis aided in Melly’s attempt to sway members of his first murder trial’s jury. (That jury ended up deadlocked 9–3 in favor of convicting Melly, forcing a mistrial.)
In addition to the original count of tampering with a witness in a capital felony, Melly (born Jamell Demons), Bortlen (born Cortlen Henry), and Mathis are now charged with directing the activities of a criminal gang, conspiracy to commit tampering, and two counts each of solicitation to commit tampering and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.
Reporter Bryson “Boom” Paul, who’s been closely covering Melly’s trials, posted the state’s instruction sheet to the Broward County Clerk and an information document on the new filings on X this morning (October 18), after they were published on the Clerk’s website on Tuesday.
The FADER has reached out to a member of Melly’s defense team for comment on the new charges.
Jury selection for YNW Melly’s double homicide retrial started today, after new motions from both the defense and prosecution forced Judge John Murphy to delay the proceedings for nine days. On Tuesday (October 17), Judge Murphy approved Assistant State Attorney Alixandra Buckelew — who who helped convict four men accused in the 2018 murder of XXXTentacion — as the case’s new lead prosecutor. ASA Kristin Bradley, who had led the prosecution of Melly’s first murder trial, was recused from the case on Friday the 13th. Buckelew’s approval effectively dashed any hope Melly’s defense team had harbored of the case being dismissed outright before the trial began.
For a detailed look into Melly’s case, read The FADER’s regularly updated explainer.
