In a recorded voice call with DJ Akademiks, the 'Mixed Personalities' rhymer speaks of his faith and how he is always grateful for his fans' support amid his incarceration.
- Oct 4, 2022
AceShowbiz - YNW Melly has broken his silence on allegations that he plotted prison escape. In a recorded video call with DJ Akademiks, the incarcerated rapper preached his faith in God and showed his appreciation for those who have been supporting him while he's behind bars.
In the audio clip released on Sunday, October 2, Melly spoke from jail, "This is YNW Melly. I just wanna let all my fans know that God is real and Jesus is real, you know what I'm saying? He has anointed my head with oil, you feel me? He has cleansed my soul."
"He has blessed me to really see the reason y'all love me, the reason everybody loves my music, is because of God," the 23-year-old went on declaring. "He gave me that gift. He is the reason I'm coming home - nobody else."
"I love y'all, and I love y'all so much. I thank God for all of y'all every day," the Gifford native added, before asking for his fans' prayers. "Thank y'all, just keep me in your prayers. Amen."
The Florida Sheriff's Office made the allegations during a pre-trial hearing on September 27. "The confidential source gave us two pieces of information. One of them [about the shank and drugs] turned out to be a hundred percent true," Christian Tsoubanos, Assistant General Counsel for the Broward Sheriff's Office, told the court. "And when they did the search of Demons' cell, they did not find the handcuff key, but it could have been that there was not an opportunity to bring it into the facility yet."
The Broward County Sheriff's General Counsel's Office additionally provided a statement to Complex reiterating the allegations. "On April 11, 2022, Broward Sheriff's Office received a confidential tip regarding inmates Nicholas Lewis and Jamell Demons, both housed in the same unit at the Main Jail, planning an escape from jail by having Demons' attorney bring in two handcuff keys to aid in the escape," the statement reads in part. "Additional information provided by the source was that Lewis had a shank and drugs."
Melly's attorney Raven Liberty has since denied the allegations. "There is no truthfulness to this whatsoever," she told XXL. "When Melly comes into visits, whether it's [with] me, my investigator or anybody else, he is strip searched coming into the visit, and when he leaves the visit he is strip searched. If there would have been any type of contraband i.e. keys, they would have found it."
Melly's mom Jamie Demons-King also came to his defense, accusing prosecutors of making up the claims to further discredit her son. "First of all, this is just another tactic for them to try to literally tarnish my son's character and everything," she said in an Instagram video.
"They do not want him having attorney visits in person, which will cause for ineffective counsel. So, we went to court for that, and they took his phone calls and they have him locked down. They had no evidence whatsoever that his attorneys did anything wrong to prove these accusations but they knew it would get picked up by the media," she claimed. "So when we get ready to pick a jury, hopefully, in the next two weeks, it's going to be 'Oh, this kid tried to escape. Oh, this kid tried to do all these things.' "
