Detective Mark Moretti is the last witness that the state called to the stand in YNW Melly's double murder trial, and he challenged the defense's claims about a phone linked to Melly.
During his testimony on Tuesday, Detective Moretti spoke about meeting with Melly's manager in 2019 to retrieve the phone, and a passcode that Melly gave his mother during a recorded jail call unlocked the device. Throughout the trial, the defense argued that the phone didn’t belong to Melly, stating that it was a communal phone used by his family and friends. However, Moretti cast more doubt on the claims after testifying that he extracted videos of Melly from the phone using a digital forensic tool. Moretti stated, "By us taking the data, downloading it, [it] authenticates everything."
The day prior, Moretti testified that they investigated the area along Miramar Parkway where Melly's co-defendant Cortlen "Bortlen" Henry claims they were victims of a drive-by shooting. Moretti claims there were no shell casings or evidence to prove this claim, adding that an area near the intersection of U.S. 27 and Pembroke Road did show evidence of a shooting. Moretti called that location "a very desolate place" near a canal, revealing that they searched for a weapon to no avail.
This comes after a bullet trajectory expert was called weeks earlier in the trial to discredit the drive-by shooting claims. Sgt. Christopher Williams testified, "My determination was that this was not a drive-by shooting." He then stated that "the shooting happened from somebody inside the car," adding that "the angles" of the projectiles going into the victims' bodies "do not change."
Source: Local10.com
