Yella Beezy’s Defense Tears Into The $40,000 Payment Theory On Day 9 Of The MO3 Trial
The second week of Yella Beezy’s capital murder trial ended with his defense doing real damage to the state’s money trail — cross-examining the lead detective Friday on a $40,000 withdrawal prosecutors say helped pay for MO3’s killing, and getting him to concede what police can’t prove.
Beezy, born Markies Conway, has pleaded not guilty to capital murder. Prosecutors accuse him of paying Kewon White to kill MO3 (Melvin Noble) on Interstate 35 in Dallas in November 2020. White was convicted of capital murder in September and sentenced to life in prison.
On Friday (November 6), defense attorney Toby Shook walked Dallas Police Detective Eric Barnes through Beezy’s Chase Bank records. The $40,000 withdrawal at the center of the state’s theory was made on November 20, 2020 — nine days AFTER MO3 was killed, not before. The defense pointed to other large withdrawals that followed a $350,000 record-label wire, with Barnes acknowledging he did not know how Beezy spent the money. Shook argued the cash fit the rapper’s usual spending — and showed a November 23, 2020 Instagram video of Beezy dealing out $100 bills on a table, arguing it undercut the claim that the withdrawn cash was handed over.
The bills didn’t line up either. The bank withdrawal was in $100s and $50s, while footage showed White holding bundles of smaller bills at an Arlington jewelry store. Barnes acknowledged investigators could not trace the recovered cash directly to Beezy’s withdrawal.
Shook then went at the alleged barbershop confession, citing FBI cell-tower analysis that placed Beezy’s phone roughly 40 miles north in Frisco at the relevant time. Barnes acknowledged police had no corroborating evidence placing the rapper at the barbershop.
The defense also pressed the credibility of witness Theodore Thomas, who had denied Beezy’s involvement in an earlier interview and later changed his account. The two sides also fought over a redacted message — “We all told him, don’t grab no gun. We got other [men] for that” — which prosecutors argued showed Beezy had people who would “do the shootings” for him, and which the defense said referred to security. Judge Chika Anyiam allowed the message into evidence, while barring jurors from hearing White’s recorded jail remarks about payment.
Shook also pointed the jury toward co-defendant Devin Brown, separately charged in the case, arguing Brown had his own conflict with MO3 and his own access to cash. That is a defense theory, not a jury finding. Beezy faces life in prison if convicted. The jury has not reached a verdict, and ITSBIZKIT will update this story as the trial continues.
Sources: AllHipHop (trial reporting).
