YNW Melly‘s attorneys have filed a motion to exclude phone calls made by YNW Bortlen and Melly from trial evidence.
YNW Melly’s Attorneys Seek to Exclude YNW Bortlen Call Records From Evidence
On Thursday (May 23), documents were obtained by XXL that show YNW Melly’s attorneys filed a motion on Monday (May 20) to exclude phone conversations between YNW Bortlen, Melly and his ex-girlfriend Mariah Hamilton from evidence. Bortlen is the co-defendant in Melly’s double murder retrial, and the defense claimed the alleged conversations were all “irrelevant, inadmissible hearsay” that was nothing more than “small talk.”
The prosecution responded to the request by filing a request of their own, asking the judge move to deny the defense’s motion and obtain the phone calls as well as all the videos and pictures on Bortlen’s cell phone.
A police affidavit previously obtained by XXL last October found authorities accusing Melly and Bortlen of communicating on the phone through another inmate, Terrence Mathis. The goal was to help prevent Hamilton and her mother, Felicia Holmes, from testifying against the rapper. Police claimed Bortlen and Mathis exchanged over 60 phone calls between March and August of 2023 and relied on cryptic slang—such as the code names “Rihanna” and “A$AP Rocky—to hide their plot.
XXL has reached out to YNW Melly’s team for further comment.
Read More: YNW Melly Believes Kendrick Lamar Dissed Him on “Like That”
YNW Melly Retrial Postponed
The update comes as YNW Melly continues to sit in jail with no retrial date set. Melly’s initial double murder trial—where he was accused of conspiring with YNW Bortlen to murder his two friends YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy—was declared a mistrial last July. Melly’s retrial was initially set to begin on Oct. 9, 2023, but it was delayed again after Melly and Bortlen were hit with an additional charges of witness tampering.
In January, Judge John J. Murphy III declared the rapper’s retrial would begin on March 5 because of how long Melly had been in custody. However, a new date has not been set.
