Key witness & lead detective testifies in Yella Beezy trial | Dallas News Live

Kick things off here at the top of the one o'clock hour with that rap feud taking center stage in a Dallas courtroom on day eight of Yella Beezy's capital murder trial. Prosecutors today played a music video by Mo3, the rapper who was shot and killed on Interstate 35 back in 2020. Dallas police detective Eric Barnes has been a star witness and he has testified that the state pointed to lyrics. It says reference Yella Beezy being shot on a tollway two years ago. The defense challenged the evidence, lots of objections in courtrooms today, arguing that the detective could not establish who actually wrote those words. The judge, however, did allow the video. Yella Beezy, by the way, denies arranging the murder of rapper Moe 3. Let's bring in now John Helms, a criminal defense attorney and a former federal prosecutor, to break some of this down. John, thank you so much for being here. Tell me, how common is this for prosecutors to be using rap lyrics As evidence in a murder trial. This seems pretty unprecedented, huh? It's actually not that unprecedented. Okay. There have been a number of cases in Texas, for example, where rap lyrics have been used to show a motive. For crime. That's what the prosecutors are doing in this case. It can also show that someone has knowledge of somebody else's actions, which may be important in a case. Thank you very much. There have been a number of cases, including one that went up to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal court in our state, dealing with whether Thank you. Rap lyrics can be used to show that a person is generally violent, for example, and the courts have said you can't use it for that. But here they're trying to use it to show a motivation for the killing of Melvin Noble. So that's what I was gonna ask you. I mean, I imagine that there's a pretty fine line between artistic expression and then whether it's actually evidence of a crime. No, that's exactly right, and that's what the courts look at, and they consider the fact that it is artistic expression. And people, you know, if you're writing a novel, you're writing a work of fiction. If you're writing rap lyrics, you're not necessarily saying things that are actually true. They can be a story you're telling. So they don't necessarily mean that you're the kind of person that you're claiming to be if you're bragging about something in a rap song. For example, but they can show motivation and in this case, that's what the state is using it to do. So in your professional opinion, I'm curious, Eric Barnes, we talked about Detective Eric Barnes with the Dallas Police Department, the star testimony in the state's case. What do you make of how he's been doing there on the stand and the relevance to proving the case? Well, I think that... Some of his testimony about things like cell phone pings is gonna be very helpful to the state because up until this point, there hasn't been a lot that has actually tied Marquise Conway, who's also known as Yella Beezy, To making payments that went to Kiwan White to shoot Moe Three, Melvin Noble. So I think that the cell tower evidence might help the prosecutors do that. Because it can show where the area where people were in at different times. So that may be a way that they try to use to tie it up and Detective Barnes would. Probably be the one to do that. It's almost as if you read my mind because that was my next question on the list talking about cell phone data. Clearly this is a different world we live in with the digital footprints and being able to download all of the data and all of the information that can be retrieved off of one cell phone. How important is that location data in terms of establishing someone's involvement in a crime or does it simply place them in the general area? How good is it? How reliable is it? And what do the juries tend to think about it? Well, as far as what juries think, I think juries think that cell data doesn't lie. Fine. It's data. So it doesn't have a motivation to lie or mislead or anything like that. As far as its usefulness, it depends on... Whether the data shows something that would be unusual, for example, I have a case recently in which a person was, their cell phone was located very near the scene of a crime while other people were committing the crime. And that area was a long way away from this defendant's home and where he would normally be. So in that situation, I think it's very probative for the state because it shows that you're in an area near the crime or near whatever the state says is happening, and it's an area that you wouldn't necessarily normally be. So it depends on the data, but I think in this case, it would be very helpful if they can show contact between Yella Beezy, Mr. Conway, and either Kiwan White or the people working with him. You know what, we have about two minutes left, and I want to talk about Cedric Bradley in the remaining time. We've got childhood friend of convicted gunman Kiwan White. He testified yesterday that White confessed to the crime, but he complained about not getting paid. But now we know that he has his own criminal history. He previously told investigators that he knew nothing about the murder. So I'm curious, how much do those contradictions undermine his credibility? Well, I mean, anytime you've got someone with a criminal history that raises questions. But on the other hand, prosecutors use other criminals as witnesses all the time. And juries very often believe them. And I think that for Mr. Bradley, the most interesting thing he testified to me is that he hadn't been paid yet. And that he was going to go contact a guy named, who went by the name of Bodega or Jose Bodega, whose real name is Theodore Thomas, about getting paid. Bodega is the guy who originally took the fifth and then was given immunity and then testified that all the incriminating stuff he said about Mr. Conway to the grand jury was just a bunch of lies. Well, so the testimony by Cedric Bradley as Kiwan White saying that he was going to go to Bodega for payment and he hadn't been paid yet. And we know from the evidence that nine days after the shooting is when Mr. Conway, Yella Beezy, withdrew $40,000 from a bank. So I think that's pretty interesting testimony from him. Yeah, the question is whether prosecutors can connect that $40,000 withdrawal to the actual payment for the murder. It's so fascinating. This whole trial was expected to last about two or three weeks. If convicted, Conway could face a life sentence. John Helms, a criminal defense lawyer and a former federal prosecutor, thank you so much for your insight. Appreciate you being here, sir. You bet. Thank you for having me.