A judge determined on May 17 that a guy who provided evidence against three former friends who killed budding rapper XXXTentacion during a robbery five years ago will serve the following two years in jail.
Robert Allen was given a seven-year prison term by Circuit Judge Michael Usan, with credit for the five years he had already served in the Broward County Prison. After that, he will serve 20 years of probation. He might have been sentenced to life in prison.
Usan stated, “I do feel you are not the same person that I charged five years ago. “I really think you’re sorry for what you did, not sorry for who you are,”
Allen, 27, admitted guilt to second-degree murder last year and gave a deposition earlier this year in which he accused Michael Boatwright, 27, Dedrick Williams, 27, and Trayvon Newsome, 25, of the crime. In March, they were found guilty of first-degree murder and received a life sentence.
Allen pleaded with the court, “Please pardon me; I’m so sorry.” “Today I beg the court not to sentence me to death by sending me to state prison,” the defendant says.
Allen and his lawyer, Jim Lewis, made reference to the likelihood that other prisoners from the same gang would kill him because he was a former gang member who “snitched” on other gang members.
“There’s nothing to be happy about in this kind of a case, you know he did the right thing and the court did the right thing, give him the opportunity to give him a life,” Lewis said.
Prosecutors used extensive security footage from both inside and outside Riva Motorsports to connect Allen, Boatwright, Williams, and Newsome to the June 18, 2018, shooting outside the store during the month-long trial. Hours after the incident, they grabbed $50,000 and recorded smartphone films of themselves flaunting fistfuls of $100 bills.
When an SUV swerved in front of XXXTentacion, real name Jahseh Onfroy, as he was leaving Riva Motorsports with a companion, his BMW was completely blocked.
Two masked assailants were shown on surveillance footage approaching the 20-year-old singer at the driver’s window and firing multiple shots at him. After that, they seized a Louis Vuitton bag that contained the money that XXXTentacion had just taken out of the bank, hopped back in the SUV, and raced off.
Boatwright was named as the main shooter, and Newsome was named as the second shooter. The head of the group and the SUV’s driver was Williams.
Allen testified that the men went to the motorcycle store to get a mask for Williams before setting out that day to commit robberies. They decided to make the rapper their target after seeing him there. Williams and Allen entered the store to make sure it was really him. They waited for XXXTentacion to emerge from the SUV they had rented before ambushing him.
