FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday that three men on trial for the 2018 slaying of rapper XXXTentacion were “predators” who waited outside a motorcycle shop to rob and shoot the rising star, escaping with $50,000.
During her closing arguments in the XXXTentacion murder trial, Assistant State Attorney Pascale Achille holds up a camouflage hat with a red brim that was seen worn by shooting suspect Michael Boatwright in multiple surveillance videos included as evidence in the case, at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Emerging rapper XXXTentacion, born Jahseh Onfroy, 20, was killed during a robbery outside of Riva Motorsports in Pompano Beach in 2018, allegedly by defendants Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, and Dedrick Williams. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)
Prosecutor Pascale Achille played cellphone videos the defendants allegedly took hours after the killing that showed them smiling and dancing as they flashed handfuls of $100 bills. Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams and Trayvon Newsome are all charged with first-degree murder and face mandatory life sentences if convicted.
“This is who they are. This is their real character. Killers that within 24 hours after shooting the victim dead and stealing $50,000 from him, this is what they do,” Achille told the jury as she played the video. “Look at how happy they look. Look at how excited they look.”
She also played surveillance video from the motorcycle shop and from where two of them allegedly stashed an SUV that she says link the men to the killing.
Defense attorneys were to give their closing arguments Tuesday afternoon. The trial began a month ago.
XXXTentacion. whose real name was Jahseh Onfroy, had just left Riva Motorsports in suburban Fort Lauderdale on June 18, 2018, with a friend when his BMW was blocked by an SUV that swerved in front.
Surveillance video showed that two masked gunmen emerged and confronted the 20-year-old singer at the driver’s window, and one shot him repeatedly. They then grabbed a Louis Vuitton bag containing cash that XXXTentacion had just withdrawn from the bank, got back into the SUV and sped away. The friend was not harmed.
Boatwright, 28, is accused of being the shooter, while Newsome, 24, is accused of being the other gunman. Williams, 26, is accused of being the driver.
Shooting suspect Michael Boatwright, center, stands for the jury to enter the courtroom for closing arguments in the XXXTentacion murder trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Tuesday, March 7, 2023. Emerging rapper XXXTentacion, born Jahseh Onfroy, 20, was killed during a robbery outside of Riva Motorsports in Pompano Beach in 2018, allegedly by defendants Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, and Dedrick Williams. (Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP, Pool)
A fourth man who prosecutors say was in the SUV, 26-year-old Robert Allen, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder and testified against his former friends.
Prosecutors say the men set out that day to commit robberies and had gone to the motorcycle shop to buy Williams a mask. There they spotted the rapper and decided to make him their target. Allen and Williams went inside the motorcycle shop to confirm it was him. They then went back to the SUV they had rented and waited for XXXTentacion to emerge and ambushed him, according to prosecutors.
The rapper, who pronounced his name “Ex ex ex ten-ta-see-YAWN,” was a platinum-selling rising star who tackled issues including prejudice and depression in his songs. He also drew criticism over bad behavior and multiple arrests, including charges that he severely beat and abused his girlfriend.
