XXXTentacion’s uncle, Leonard Kerr, recounted what he saw on the day the rapper was fatally shot during the first day of trial regarding his killing, Tuesday. Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams, and Trayvon Newsome have been charged with first-degree murder and armed robbery regarding X’s death. Kerr was in the passenger seat of X’s car while they left RIVA Motorsports in Deerfield Beach, Florida at the time of the shooting. Surveillance footage from the time shows Kerr fleeing as the robbery goes down.
“We get in the car to drive out. At the exit, when we pull out, we stop,” Kerr said, recalling the moment on the stand. “[XXXTentacion] looked to the left. I looked to the right. By the time [XXXTentacion] looked to the left, I see a car coming down the block and blocked the entrance. After the car pulled by the entrance, two persons jump out the side doors. One come on Jahseh side, one come on the side that I’m on.”
XXXTentacion’s Uncle
From there, he demonstrated to the jury how one of the men held their gun. “The taller one do like this, ‘You don’t come out of the fucking car.’ The other one was at Jahseh’s side…He was saying, ‘Give me the chain. Where’s the chain?’” Kerr then took a moment to compose himself before continuing. He explained that he took off and began running. He later heard multiple noises that sounded like explosions from behind him. Afterward, he returned to the vehicle after the gunmen fled the scene. He found XXXTentacion unresponsive and called X’s mom, Cleopatra Bernard.
If convicted, Michael Boatwright, Dedrick Williams, and Trayvon Newsome face up to life in prison. A fourth man, Robert Allen, previously pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. As for their defense, lawyers for the group recently claimed that Drake may have actually been involved in the 2018 slaying. They explained that investigators never looked into X’s previous feud with Drake prior to his death. X once tweeted, “If anyone tries to kill me it was @champagnepapi,” but later claimed to have been hacked. There is no evidence linking Drake to X’s murder.
[Via]