Yella Beezy murder trial officially underway in Dallas

The prosecution and defense laid out their cases today in the high-profile murder-for-hire trial of Dallas rapper Yella Beezy. Both sides presenting their opening statements today, offering different accounts of the events leading up to another rapper named Mo3's murder. Fox 4's Alex Boye has been listening to testimony, and he's in studio with more. Alex. Hey, guys. Yeah, and I can tell you that day one of testimony is still going on. You know, this morning, both sides presented their opening statements, of course, to the jury. Yella Beezy, whose real name is Marquise Conway, has denied any involvement in fellow rapper Mo3's murder. Now, prosecutors accused Conway of hiring Kiwan White to kill fellow rapper Mo3, whose legal name was Melvin Noble. He was gunned down on I-35 in 2020. White was convicted of capital murder back in September and sentenced to life in prison. You see him there. Yella Beezy, though, has pleaded not guilty in this case. Prosecutors argue that rap lyrics and the feud between the two Dallas rappers could show a motive. The defense, though, argues that those lyrics were simply a form of self-expression. Now, take a listen to some of what the attorneys for both sides had to say during those opening statements. It's not just murder. It's a murder for hire. And I want you to think, while you hear about this evidence, is what would cause a man to do that? You're gonna see travel logs, you're gonna see text messages, you're gonna see videos that has the defendants own words. You're gonna hear from them. You're also gonna hear from the victim, because this feud from 2017 up until 2020 was being played out in front of everybody. The evidence will show that it will come in piecemeal, but it will never show and they'll never rule out all the reasonable doubts that come to evidence. showing Marquise Conway entered into any type of agreement to want to pay money for the murder of Melvin Noble. So if you follow the last trial, you'll notice that a lot of the same witnesses and testimony from Kiwan White's trial appear in this one as well. And that is because the state must present this as a brand new case for a different jury. In other words, make no assumptions about what the jury does or does not already know. I can tell you that some of the most compelling testimony again came from a woman who witnessed the deadly encounter. She was trapped on the highway along with other motorists. When I pulled up to the side of him, I was letting my passenger side window down. And as I was asking, are you okay? That's when I noticed he was getting out of his vehicle and he was pulling his mask down over his face and he had a gun in his hand. And did you say anything to that person? Did that person say anything to you? Yes. What did they say? They told me to, called me a bitch and told me to get the **** out of there. What do you do? I leave as fast as I could. And as you were leaving, did you hear anything or see anything else? Yes. Explain that to the jury please As I was leaving, I could hear continuous gunfire behind me. So a third defendant, Devin Brown, is believed to be the getaway driver. his capital murder trial will follow Yella Beezy now the jury i can tell you is made up of nine men and three women there's a mix of white latino and asian i can tell you that there are two black females but no black male jurors they'll ultimately decide the fate of Yella Beezy the trial is expected to last between two and three weeks back to you all right that's alex moyer covering the trial for us and a reminder for you we are live streaming the entire trial scan the qr code on your screen and it will take you right to the fox local app