Jury selection starts Monday in rapper murder trial | Dallas News Live

Last month, many of you guys followed the murder trial of rapper Moe 3. You remember he was gunned down on a Dallas interstate. The gunman, Keewon White, was found guilty. The state says that rival rapper Yella Beezy, who's also a Dallas rapper, allegedly hired Keewon White to kill Moe 3. Monday begins jury selection in the murder trial against Yella Beezy. Joining me live, attorney Rogie Dunn. Rogie, Keewon White had a lengthy trial and the state tried to connect him to Yella Beezy. If you are Toby Shook, who's a well-known good defense attorney, how do you go about jury selection knowing that this first trial was widely publicized? Well, Toby is a brilliant criminal lawyer. And one thing you do is go through the voir panel and ask the jurors if they've heard about any of this, have they heard about the prior trial, etc. And if they have any preconceived notions, you can exclude them for cause. And you get an unlimited number of what they call strikes for cause. So you wanna eliminate those people that come in with a preconceived idea or notion. We covered this trial every day and literally still to this day when I'm out and about people talk about the trial to me. So could we possibly see a longer voir dire process because so many people were interested in watching this trial? That's a brilliant question and you're absolutely right. I think it will be much longer because the first trial against Mr. White was a long trial that had a lot of notoriety, a lot of interest, especially right here in North Texas. And so a number of people are going to know about it. And again, whether you're the prosecutor or whether you are the defendant, you always want to start with a level playing field with a jury coming in with a blank slate, not coming in with ideas, convictions, or agendas. Now, when we get to the trial part, the trial last month, they spent a lot of time trying to connect Keewon White, the gunman, to who the state calls the money man, Yella Beezy, Marquise Conway. Do you think the state will just go with the same strategy that got them here? They put up a big show trying to connect the two in that trial, or will they have to do it a different type of strategy because now they're connecting the money to the murder for hire? Well, I think they're going to keep with that same basic playbook, but I think they're also going to add some pizzazz to it. The money man is a great little moniker to use, right? I could also see him say, follow the money. And I think that whenever you have a wealthy defendant like this, it's going to make it a little easier to say this guy could afford to do it, wanted to do it, he had the motive, etc. Rap lyrics were a big part of the first trial. The state trying to paint a picture of the rap feud that turned deadly. Both rappers are from the Dallas area. Moe 3, Melvin Noble was from North Dallas and Marquise Conway, Yella Beezy from the Oak Cliff area. How much could rap lyrics be used in this now that we're just talking about the alleged murder for hire part, not the murder itself. Well, I think that's gonna depend on who is in the jury box. If they're more conservative jury, you might not wanna use the rap lyrics. If they are a jury that listens to a lot of rap music, then you may want to use those lyrics. So I don't think, frankly, as an experienced trial lawyer, there is no cookie cutter, there is no quantitative metrics or matrix to use in trials. case by case basis depending on where you are and who the jury is in terms of how you want to present your prosecution or your defense for people who don't follow trials often is it common for people linked to the same crime being going before the same judge the judge who was presiding over the Kiwan White trial is the same judge who's presiding over this is that just standard operating procedure? Well, again, it depends on jurisdiction. But generally speaking, if the two defendants or multiple defendants committed a crime in the same locale and they were arrested and extradited to that locale, yes, typically speaking, you would see them all tried in the same jurisdiction and most likely the same judge. And before I let you go, Rogi, there was a delay in this. I mean, the trial was supposed to start by now, but there is a delay in this because the defense for Marquis Conway, Yella Beezy, said, hey, our client was talked about a lot in this trial that just finished, so we want the trial transcript. How can that be used on either side? Because it was talked about so much in the first trial, how could that come into play in this trial? Well, first of all, it gives the defense a playbook to for sure know the actions that were taken. It's possible that testimony from the trial could be read into the record if a deponent is not available. So I think that I understand why the defense would say we want some time to study this so that they can figure out how they might use that to help Yella Beezy on his charges against him. And things could change, but I would assume anything from that That transcript is pretty much going to be fair game in this trial. It should be, other than the judge's rulings won't be. But generally speaking, any witness that can't be called to testify, you can use the transcript. Now if the witness is available, in other words, they take Mr. White out of prison and bring him to testify, then the transcript would only be used for impeachment purposes. Right. Of course, I don't think Mr. White is gonna testify. I don't think he testified in his trial, so there may be no transcript available for them to read regarding his testimony. Yeah, and people always talk about deals and we see stuff on Law and Order and all that jazz. I mean, it would be pretty damaging to the defense if Keywan White testified, right? Right, but my understanding is he has been sentenced. Now what I don't know is if the prosecutors could go to him and say, we're gonna reduce your sentence or we're going to give you and put you in a nicer jail like was done with the woman that was involved with Epstein. So I guess that might be a possibility. But I assume Mr. White's going to appeal. So I don't know that he's going to want to admit. And of course, you know, there's always the adage that you can't believe a jailbird and you have to tell the jury, hey, he's gotten a deal or there is some kind of an arrangement and that hurts the credibility, right? Of someone who says well, now I'm going to admit that Yella Beezy paid me when he denied it and was convicted. Jury selection begins Monday. Rogi Dunn, thank you for your perspective. I'm pretty sure we'll speak again on this subject. Thanks, Rogi. Thank you, Stephen.