PH
A judge determined on May 17 that a guy who provided evidence against three former friends who killed budding rapper XXXTentacion during a robbery five years ago will serve the following two years in jail.
Robert Allen was given a seven-year prison term by Circuit Judge Michael Usan, with credit for the five years he had already served in the Broward County Prison. After that, he will serve 20 years of probation. He might have been sentenced to life in prison.
“I do believe you are not the same person who I arraigned five years ago,” Usan said. “I genuinely believe that you are sorry for what you’ve done and not sorry for yourself.”
Allen, 27, pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder and testified earlier this year against Michael Boatwright, 27, Dedrick Williams, 27, and Trayvon Newsome, 25. They were convicted of first-degree murder in March and sentenced to life in prison.
“Please forgive me, I’m so sorry,” Allen told the court. “Today I plead to the court for my own life not to be sent to state prison because that would be a death sentence.”
Allen and his attorney, Jim Lewis, referred to the fact that as a former gang member who “snitched” on other gang members, other inmates from the same gang would likely kill him.
“There’s nothing to be happy about in this kind of a case, you know he did the right thing and the court did the right thing, give him the opportunity to give him a life,” Lewis argued.
Prosecutors used extensive security footage from both inside and outside Riva Motorsports to connect Allen, Boatwright, Williams, and Newsome to the June 18, 2018, shooting outside the store during the month-long trial. Hours after the incident, they grabbed $50,000 and recorded smartphone films of themselves flaunting fistfuls of $100 bills.
When an SUV swerved in front of XXXTentacion, real name Jahseh Onfroy, as he was leaving Riva Motorsports with a companion, his BMW was completely blocked.
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. After that, they seized a Louis Vuitton bag that contained the money that XXXTentacion had just taken out of the bank, hopped back in the SUV, and raced off.
Boatwright was named as the main shooter, and Newsome was named as the second shooter. The head of the group and the SUV’s driver was Williams.
Allen testified that the men went to the motorcycle store to get a mask for Williams before setting out that day to commit robberies. They decided to make the rapper their target after seeing him there. Williams and Allen entered the store to make sure it was really him. They waited for XXXTentacion to emerge from the SUV they had rented before ambushing him.
