The attorney for the Florida man accused of fatally shooting XXXTentacion has filed motions to throw out key prosecution evidence, claiming police took advantage of his client's limited mental capacity and marijuana usage throughout the day he was arrested.
Michael "Lil' Boat" Boatwright is accused of shooting XXXTentacion, and police have identified his co-defendant, Trayvon Newsome, 22, as the second gunman. Two others, Robert Allen and Dedrick Williams, both 24, also face murder charges. The recent motions, filed by Ft. Lauderdale defense lawyer Joseph Kimok, claim that Boatwright was mentally incompetent to waive his Miranda rights when police interviewed him shortly after he allegedly shot XXXTentacion in June 2018.
"The Broward Sheriff's Office knew about this incompetence and questioned him anyway," Kimok wrote in one motion. "Mr. Boatwright had also been smoking marijuana 'all day,' further clouding his judgment, and was unable to spell his own names correctly." Kimok later clarified that during the interview, Boatwright told police he didn't know how to spell his middle name and wrote his last name down wrong. Another motion alleges that detectives ignored Boatwright when he attempted to decline a police interview.
In a third motion, Kimok claims homicide investigators were dishonest in a search warrant application to look through Boatwright's cellphone. Police found incriminating evidence in Boatwright's phone, including searches for "accessory to murder" and photos of Boatwright, where he displayed numerous $100 bills hours after the homicide.
According to police, Boatwright and Newsome wore masks and brandished guns as they ran up on XXXTentacion and demanded a Louis Vuitton bag containing $50,000 in cash. The indictment identifies Boatwright as the man who fired the fatal shots. It is unclear when a judge will rule on the defense motions; Boatwright has a Nov. 6 court date, but his previous hearings over the summer have been postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, Boatwright was declared mentally competent to stand trial in XXXTentacion's killing, but Kimok says that determination hadn't been made at the time of the interrogation.
Written by Nate Gartrell
