YNW Melly’s retrial for double murder is officially too complicated to address this year thanks to a new ruling from the Florida judge in this case. Moreover, according to NBC Miami, Judge Martin Fein revealed in a court hearing on Monday (July 8) that he rescheduled the retrial’s start date to September 10, 2025 following multiple other delays in the process. Back in January, authorities placed the trial on hold indefinitely, and the rapper had a pre-trial meeting in his witness tampering case set for December 5 of this year. Of course, folks are likely aware of the double murder case in 2023, whose result in a mistrial led us to where we are now.
Furthermore, jury selection for this retrial began back in October of 2023, and motions and appeals prolonged the process. Then, Judge John Murphy paused the case given prosecutors’ appeal of his ruling on a motion to suppress evidence, since the legal team wanted to use a documentary on YNW Melly as key evidence in the retrial. “While this short video focuses on Defendant’s life, it is mere speculation to guess who decided to add the text statement,” his defense team posited. “It could have been the director, the producer, an editor, [Melly] or any number of people. Thus, without knowing the source of the comment, it holds no evidentiary value.”
YNW Melly’s Retrial Date Is Set
Judge Murphy upheld the defense’s point of view, and the prosecution’s appeal halted discovery developments on both sides of the courtroom. In addition, this joined other disagreements between prosecutors and defense attorneys, such as YNW Melly’s wish to exclude YNW Bortlen and his girlfriend’s phone calls from the retrial. Still, there isn’t much else we know about what will actually come up in this retrial. Perhaps the near future will contain more updates as each side builds their arguments.
“The Broward State Attorneys Office really screwed this case up,” YNW Melly’s attorney claimed on social media. “I have never seen anything like it. […] A real circus over this case and mishandled from the 1st day when I was in the case. Bad investigation and even a worse trial. To think that the Broward State Attorneys Office would mishandle an important double murder case because of ego… unbelievable.”
About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a music and pop culture news writer for HotNewHipHop. He started in 2022 as a weekend writer and, since joining the team full-time, has developed a strong knowledge in hip-hop news and releases. Whether it’s regular coverage or occasional interviews and album reviews, he continues to search for the most relevant news for his audience and find the best new releases in the genre. What excites him the most is finding pop culture stories of interest, as well as a deeper passion for the art form of hip-hop and its contemporary output.
Specifically, Gabriel enjoys the fringes of rap music: the experimental, boundary-pushing, and raw alternatives to the mainstream sound. As a proud native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, he also stays up-to-date with the archipelago’s local scene and its biggest musical exponents in reggaetón, salsa, indie, and beyond.
Before working at HotNewHipHop, Gabriel produced multiple short documentaries, artist interviews, venue spotlights, and audio podcasts on a variety of genres and musical figures. Hardcore punk and Go-go music defined much of his coverage during his time at the George Washington University in D.C.
His favorite hip-hop artists working today are Tyler, The Creator, Boldy James, JPEGMAFIA, and Earl Sweatshirt.
