Cortlen Henry, the driver in the YNW Melly double murder case who is facing related murder charges of his own, was arrested in Miami-Dade County Monday on an out-of-county warrant.
Henry, 24, is accused of conspiring with Jamell “YNW Melly” Demons to ambush fellow rappers Christopher “YNW Juvy” Thomas and Anthony “YNW Sakchaser” Williams after a late-night recording session five years ago. Henry has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of accessory after the fact — investigators say he staged the crime scene with Demons to make it appear that Thomas and Williams were victims of a drive-by shooting.
Details about Henry’s arrest in Miami and its connection to the murder case were not immediately available. Henry is being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on an out-of-county warrant.
Demons’ first trial on his own murder charges ended in a mistrial in July after jurors could not reach unanimous agreement on his guilt. The jury’s final vote tally was 9 to 3 in favor of conviction. His retrial is scheduled to begin later this month. Henry goes to trial in January.
Since the hung jury, defense lawyers Jamie Banjamin and Daniel Aaronson have filed motions accusing prosecutors of hiding allegedly incriminating evidence against the Miramar Police Department’s lead detective on the case, evidence they say could lead a fair juror to question his integrity.
On top of asking Broward Circuit Judge John J. Murphy to dismiss the case, the defense team is asking the judge to take the case out of the hands of the Broward State Attorney’s Office.
Murphy has not yet considered those arguments and said he is giving prosecutors time to respond.
One of the allegations against the detective, Mark Moretti, stems from his questioning last year of Jamie King, Demons’ mother. As he was questioning King, Moretti executed a search warrant for her phone, grabbing it from her as she allegedly attempted to turn it off. In July, nine months after that incident, King filed a complaint accusing Moretti of using excessive force.
According to the warrant for that phone, investigators believed King and others, including Henry, were trying to tamper with witnesses in the case.
Demons is believed to be the shooter who killed his fellow rappers, with Henry serving as the driver and helping cover up the crime. Henry drove the victims to a nearby hospital in Miramar after the shooting, ostensibly to seek help but, according to prosecutors, already knowing full well the victims were dead.
Demons has been in custody since his 2019 arrest. Henry was released on a $180,000 bond. As a condition of his release, he was not to contact any witnesses in the case.
According to the warrant for King’s phone, he did.
“Henry had stated to (Demons’ girlfriend, a witness in the case against both defendants), if she was more loyal, she would be driving a pink BMW,” the warrant states, attributing the accusation to the girlfriend’s mother. The statement made it “clear that if (she) does not cooperate with the criminal case, she would have been rewarded.”
The accusation was second-hand, and it would have been challenging for law enforcement to use it to bring Henry back into custody.
Henry’s lawyer, Fred Haddad, said prosecutors would likely use the basis of Monday’s arrest to revoke his client’s bond, but he declined to comment further because he had not seen the warrant for Henry’s arrest.
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