The attorney for one of the four men charged with murdering XXXTentacion has filed a subpoena for records and video of Kodak Black's recent three-day stint in the Broward County jail, implying that staff allowed the rapper and his client to interact.
In a recent legal motion, defense attorney Mauricio Padilla, who represents Dedrick Williams, called the subpoenaed records "vital" to proving Williams' innocence on charges that he and three others gunned down XXXTentacion during a June 2018 robbery attempt.
Padilla wants to inspect surveillance video footage depicting cells 5 and 7 of jail unit 6A from the hours of 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on both July 15 and July 16. He also wants jail records showing exactly where both Kodak Black and Williams were housed inside the jail from July 15-17, court records show.
The request includes any "keep separate orders" that say Williams is to be kept away from other inmates in the jail, Padilla wrote in his motion.
The records request covers the entirety of Kodak Black's brief stay at the Broward County main jail after he was arrested on suspicion of possessing prescription pills. Kodak Black was booked a little after midnight on July 16 and bailed out of jail the following day, according to court records. Prosecutors have charged Kodak Black in both state and federal court in connection to the arrest.
Williams, meanwhile, has been housed in the jail since his 2018 arrest.
Padilla's motion doesn't explain why the requested records are essential to the defense, but the jail has preserved everything Padilla subpoenaed and is awaiting a judge's order to turn over the records to the defense.
This is not the first time Kodak Black and Williams have been publicly linked. After Williams' arrest on capital murder charges in 2018, the Sun Sentinel reported that Williams was a tattoo artist who claimed to have inked the phrase "Road Runner" on Kodak Black's abdomen. Later that year, the Broward County Sheriff's public information officer publicly denied rumors that friends of Kodak Black had attacked and possibly sexually assaulted Williams in the jail, calling those reports completely "unfounded."
Williams is still awaiting trial in XXXTentacion's killing, along with co-defendants Michael Boatwright and Trayvon Newsome. A fourth defendant, Robert Allen, accepted a plea deal and agreed to testify against the other three earlier this year.
Written by Nate Gartrell
