YNW Melly's Judge Wants Him to Decide on Legal Team

YNW Melly has to decide whether he wants to keep the current legal team that he has for his upcoming murder retrial.

On Tuesday (Jan. 7), Broward Circuit Judge Martin Fein put the incarcerated rapper under oath to discuss his legal situation. Melly was on the second of a two-day “all pending motions” hearing where lawyers take care of unfinished business that they have that can stop a trial from proceeding.

Because the trial has been so unpredictable, the retrial won’t actually happen until September, and there’s a new 'all pending motions' hearing set for Feb. 18.

Complicating matters even further is the fact that one of his lead defense lawyers, Raven LIberty, is currently under investigation for tampering. The defense lawyers are requesting that the judge give them time to review the allegations against Liberty.

Due to all of this, Fein informed the 25-year-old rapper that he has to decide if Liberty being under investigation creates a conflict of interest where she can’t defend herself and betray her client’s confidence at the same time.

“At some point you’re going to need to decide who you want your lawyers to be,” said Fein.

"Your case is set for trial Sept. 10th. That’s not that far away, you understand that?” added Fein. Your case is going to go to trial on September 10th. If you change lawyers, you’re going to have a group of lawyers in place that are going to have like seven months to prepare a capital case."

After telling Melly about his situation, he asked if the rapper had any questions. After conferring with one of his lawyers, he decided that he didn’t have anything to ask.

Last November, Melly filed a lawsuit against the Broward Sheriff’s Office for giving him “cruel” treatment while he’s incarcerated. He’s alleged that he’s being "illegally detained under conditions that violate the First, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution” and hasn’t been able to speak to his family in three years.

"His cruel treatment by the Broward Detention authorities warrants his immediate release from pretrial detention since the detaining authorities have shown such a callous disregard for his human dignity Right to Counsel," reads the lawsuit.

YNW Melly has been accused of orchestrating the murders of two of his friends and collaborators, Chris "YNW Juvy" Thomas and Anthony "YNW Sakchaser" Williams, in 2018. Prosecutors have accused him of staging the double murder to look like a drive-by shooting.