Star rapper XXXTentacion was shot dead in 2018 outside a motorcycle shop in South Florida while being robbed of 50,000 dollars (£40,200). Three men were sentenced to life in prison for his murder.
Following eight days of deliberations, a jury last month found Trayvon Newsome, 24, Michael Boatwright, 28, and Dedrick Williams, 26, each of them guilty of first-degree murder and armed robbery.
Broward County Circuit Judge Michael Usan was only able to sentence the first-degree murder defendants to life in prison because the prosecution had not requested the death penalty.
The suspects, two in suits and one in a button-down shirt displayed no emotion as they lined up one by one to be handcuffed by a bailiff.
Robert Allen, a fourth defendant, admitted taking part in the heist with the other three defendants and entered a plea of guilty to manslaughter last year. He has not yet been found guilty.
Following a plea to District Attorney Pascale Achille, Boatwright, who was proven to have fired the fatal rounds, was also given an additional 30 years in jail.
Achille requested the additional punishment because Boatwright disregarded the conditions of his probation after killing the rapper.
At Achille’s request, the sentence will be carried out concurrently with his life sentence because Boatwright engaged in “abhorrent behavior” during the trial, including laughing as it went on.
Usan stated: “You turned a robbery into a murder. On that day, when you stood there and fired that weapon, you ended five lives, including your own.’
XXXTentacion’s manager, Solomon Sabande, read a statement in court on behalf of the rapper’s family NBCMiamiwhich read, “This is a loss we will never really recover from.
“We will never see Jahseh live to his full potential. We’ll never see him grow old. We will never see him become a father.
Onfroy’s son was born seven months after the murder.
As she left the courthouse, Cleopatra Bernard, the mother of the murdered rapper XXXTentacion, praised his supporters for keeping up with the case and declared, “Justice has been done.”
Boatwright, the shooter, used a phone app to message 17 individuals before renting the SUV that was used in the shooting, the jury was informed.
He took a break from texting for approximately two hours before writing, “Tell my brother I have the money for the new phone,” in a message.
He emailed someone a screenshot of a news item a few minutes later stating that XXXTentacion had been shot.
As a Vehicle swerved in front of XXXTentacion’s BMW, he had just left Riva Motorsports with a companion. Two masked assailants were shown on surveillance footage approaching the 20-year-old singer at the driver’s window and firing multiple shots at him.
They subsequently seized a Louis Vuitton bag filled with cash that XXXTentacion had just taken out of the bank, hopped back in the Vehicle, and took off. The friend was unharmed.
The other gunman, according to the accusation, was Newsome. Allen and Williams were both in the SUV, and Williams was charged with operating it.
Allen testified that the men departed that day to carry out robberies and went to a motorcycle store to purchase a mask for Williams. They chose to make the rapper their target after spotting him there. Williams and Allen went into the shop to make sure it was him.
Afterward, in accordance with testimony, they returned to the SUV they had leased, waited for XXXTentacion to emerge, and then ambushed him.
The platinum-selling rapper, whose name is pronounced “Ex ex ex ten-ta-see-YAWN,” addressed topics of racism and sadness in his lyrics.
Along with criticism for his bad behavior and several arrests, he was also accused of abusing and violently beating his girlfriend.