"'Hey X, let me get a photo,'" Barbieux recalled asking the rapper. "He just ignored me and got in his car."
XXXTentacion (real name Jahseh Onfroy) attempted to leave Reva in his BMW i8 sports car with Leonard Kerr, a family friend, riding shotgun. When a Dodge Journey blocked the BMW at the exit, Barbieux testified, he watched two masked men, one armed with a rifle and the other with a handgun, emerge from the SUV.
Kerr jumped out of the BMW and ran past him, screaming, "They're robbing X!" Barbieux stated. He could see XXXTentacion "fighting for his life" as the robber who was holding the rifle backed up. "Bam!" Barbieux said, describing the first of three or four gunshots he heard.
Barbieux was one of several eyewitnesses to testify last week in the trial of three men — Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, and Dedrick Williams — charged with murdering XXXTentacion that day in a botched robbery that netted a Louis Vuitton satchel stuffed with $50,000 in hundred-dollar bills that the 19-year-old rapper was holding. Jurors also heard from two crime-lab detectives who collected evidence from various scenes tied to the homicide and two women who were close to Williams.
Their testimony corroborates the account of Robert Allen, a fourth member of the robbery crew who pleaded guilty in August for his role in XXXTentacion's death. Testimony from Allen, the prosecution's star witness, stretched across five days following opening arguments earlier this month.
Allen stated under oath that Boatwright carried a rifle to the robbery and shot XXXTentacion and that Newsome, the other gunman, snatched the Vuitton bag. Williams was behind the wheel of the SUV, according to Allen, who said he refused to participate in the stickup owing to surveillance cameras he'd seen inside and outside Reva.
The trial is expected to last through March.
Eyewitness Accounts
Having briefly ducked for cover, Barbieux testified that on February 14, he ran to the BMW and found XXXTentacion nearly lifeless while the Dodge sped off. After shaking the 19-year-old victim's shoulders, he said, he snapped a photo of the critically wounded rapper that he posted on his Snapchat a few minutes later.When Broward County Assistant State Attorney Pascale Achille asked why he took the snapshot, Barbieux replied, "Because I was a big fan of his, and I wanted a photo to remember that forever."
On February 16, Layla Can, Barbieux's then-girlfriend who was with him at Reva, testified that she watched the Dodge pull in front of the BMW "pretty swiftly" and that the two armed men "jumped out aggressively."Asked why he took a snapshot of the dying rapper, Barbieux replied, "Because I was a big fan of his and I wanted a photo to remember that forever."
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"They were yelling, 'Get out of the car!'" Can recalled. "I saw them reach into the car. Both of them were on the driver's side."
Can said she, too, ducked for cover when she heard the gunshots. After the SUV took off, she followed Barbieux to the BMW. Reva employees also approached the fallen rapper, and one of them checked his pulse and called 911, Can said, adding, "I was in a state of shock."
A day after Can testified, Reva sales rep Marco Rueda told jurors he was about 60 feet away when the robbery transpired. "There was a lot of struggling going on," Rueda testified. "One of them came over to the passenger's side when the door was open."
After hearing the gunshots, Rueda watched the robbers pile into the Dodge and speed off. XXXTentacion's death affected him, he added. "He was such a nice young man," Rueda said. "He always came in super happy. That is the way he seemed that day."
Defendant's Friends Testify
On February 14 and 15, the jury heard testimony from Tony Robinson, a Miramar resident who was a close friend of Williams, and from Williams' ex-girlfriend Tenell Carter. Both women corroborated Allen's testimony about the events that led up to the robbery-turned-homicide and its aftermath.Robinson said she did not have an intimate relationship with Williams and considered him a brother. "We hung out together," she testified. "Our kids play with each other. I would cook, and he would come over."
On June 17, 2018, a day before the robbery, Robinson testified, Williams asked her to rent a car for him through the car-rental app Turo. He told her that Allen would go with her to pick up the rental the following day.
"The plan was to pick up Big Rob from his house, go to the bank, deposit the money for the rental car, and then pick up the rental car," she said under oath. "I would be the one to pick up the car from the owner, and then we would drive somewhere so Big Rob could take the car."
Robinson said in the late afternoon of June 18, she got a call from Allen's phone. It was Boatwright, who informed her they'd gotten into an accident in the Dodge. She said Williams was with her at the time, noting, "He was upset."
She stayed home while Williams drove to the scene of the accident in her car. Allen, Boatwright, Newsome, and Williams later showed up at her house together, Robinson stated. "They were arguing about who was going to be responsible for the damages," she recounted. "[Williams] felt he shouldn't have to pay for it since he wasn't there when it happened."
Williams then handed her $1,000 in cash, which she delivered to the Dodge's owner. "They were one-hundred-denomination bills," Robinson said. "And they were all crispy."When Achille asked whether Williams had told her that "it wasn't supposed to go down like that," Carter replied, "Yes ma'am."
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Tenell Carter, a preschool teacher who dated Williams for a year and a half until they broke up shortly after XXXTentacion's homicide, testified that he told her he'd been present during the robbery and murder. When prosecutor Achille asked whether Williams had told her that "it wasn't supposed to go down like that" and that he knew the shooter's identity, Carter replied, "Yes, ma'am."
Carter also confirmed that after he was arrested, Williams persuaded her to submit a notarized affidavit to Judge Michael Usan, who is presiding over the case, falsely stating that he was not behind the wheel the day XXXTentacion was murdered.