DALLAS — Jurors in the capital murder trial of Kewon Dontrell White watched surveillance video from a home on Ramona Avenue on Friday, with prosecutors arguing the footage captures the 27-year-old carrying the same rifle used to kill rapper Melvin Noble Jr. — known as Mo3 — on a Dallas highway in 2020, then burning clothes in the backyard roughly an hour later.
This is the courtroom test of a murder-for-hire theory prosecutors have built since White’s arrest in December 2020. White is the first of four defendants to face a jury, per Hypefresh’s prior coverage of the Mo3 case. The verdict reshapes three more.
Prosecutors say Dallas rapper Markies Conway — known as Yella Beezy — paid White to kill his onetime rival after a years-long public feud that also pulled in rapper TrapBoy Freddy. Conway has pleaded not guilty and denies any role. Trials for Conway and co-defendants Devin Brown and Jerry Johnson have not been scheduled.
State District Judge Chika Anyiam is presiding. She has already drawn national attention for a pretrial ruling that allowed three rap tracks — including Mo3’s “2 Nineteen” — as evidence while keeping most of Conway’s catalog out.
The Friday testimony came from FBI digital forensic examiner Scott Morris, who walked jurors through video and stills pulled from phones and cameras tied to the Ramona Avenue home, according to FOX 4’s day-three live blog. Prosecutors showed the panel one set of images of a man from behind in low-slung pants and a backpack, and another shot at night of a figure standing near an open fire.
Attorneys fought over how far Morris could go. The state wanted jurors to hear that the rifle in the Ramona footage matches the high-capacity weapon seen in the Nov. 11, 2020 chase on Interstate 35E near the Dallas Zoo. The defense argued Morris extracted files and is not a firearms expert. Anyiam limited his testimony accordingly.
Defense attorney Myra McIntosh asked Anyiam for a mistrial on Friday. She denied it. Testimony resumes Monday at the Frank Crowley Courts Building. The trial is expected to run about two weeks.
In opening statements Wednesday, Assistant District Attorney Tommy Adams told jurors White was “a hitman on the highway” at noon that day, with cars packed around him in broad daylight. McIntosh countered that prosecutors are asking jurors to close holes in the proof instead of proving the case beyond a reasonable doubt, according to KERA News.
Dash video from a nearby Kroger delivery truck — played Wednesday — shows Noble stop in the highway lanes, climb out the driver’s door, reach toward the passenger side, then run. A masked gunman with a rifle gives chase. The shots land off camera. Retired Dallas County medical examiner Jeffrey Barnard told jurors Noble suffered 13 rifle wounds, according to HotNewHipHop’s trial recap. First responders testified Noble never showed signs of life on the way to the hospital.
Witness Kristina Hopkins testified that the gunman pointed the rifle at her and pulled a ski mask over his face, according to The Dallas Morning News. She said she never saw enough of his face to identify him in court.
Courtroom observers said jurors saw a comparison of the I-35 gunman and a man on the Ramona Avenue cameras wearing matching clothing, including blue underwear visible at the waist. Separate clips — with timestamps that Morris said ran about an hour behind real time — show a fire in the backyard a little more than an hour after the highway shooting. Prosecutors allege White burned the clothes he wore during the chase.
White’s lawyers have argued some of the video does not show him at all. The lead defense attorney pushed Anyiam on Friday for a mistrial. She denied it.
Conway’s legal team has come under scrutiny in recent months, with fans voicing concern over his latest attorney hire. Conway has pleaded not guilty to capital murder and denies any role. Brown is charged with helping set up the shooting. Prosecutors say Brown was in the car with White and appears on video walking toward Noble in a ski mask. White appeared on stage with Conway shortly before Noble was killed, according to pretrial filings.
Jocylynn Jackson, who dated Noble and shares children with Brown, testified Wednesday that Noble left her place shortly before he was shot and the timing felt wrong to her. Noble’s mother, Nichole Noble, told the jury family called him “Bubba.”
“He was a family man,”
she said.
“When he was with us he wasn’t MO3 the rapper.”
White is already serving 105 months in federal prison. In November 2022, U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer sentenced him after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Agents found a 9mm pistol in his pocket after an Aug. 16, 2020 dirt-bike chase in Lancaster, three months before the I-35 shooting.
On Nov. 23, 2020, after his arrest in the murder case, Mount Pleasant officers documented cash, drugs, packaging, and additional firearms taken from him during a traffic stop, court filings show. He spent Nov. 23 and 24 in the Titus County Jail.
White has sat through the footage with a calm face, turning to supporters in the gallery during breaks, according to people in the courtroom. The state still has to convince 12 jurors that the man on the Ramona cameras, the man on the highway, and the man at the defense table are the same person.
For Hypefresh’s broader coverage of capital murder trials in the rap world, see our reporting on the Takeoff murder trial and Lil Durk’s federal murder-for-hire case.
