Jurors hearing the case against Kewon White were introduced to a version of MO3 that never belonged to the stage. Nichole Noble, the slain rapper’s mother, described her son as the family comedian and someone whose celebrity disappeared when he walked through the door at home.
“It was never MO3 at home because it wasn’t about rap at home,” Noble testified, according to AllHipHop. To his relatives, she said, he was still Melvin or “Bubba.” She remembered him as the person who could change the mood when someone was having a bad day. “He was…just my baby. He was my baby.”
Her testimony came as prosecutors began presenting their case against White, who is the first defendant to face a jury in the alleged murder-for-hire plot surrounding MO3’s November 2020 killing. Prosecutors allege he tracked MO3, whose legal name was Melvin Noble, before chasing him on foot along Interstate 35E and fatally shooting him. Yella Beezy, born Markies Conway, is separately accused of hiring White to carry out the killing, while Devin Brown is accused of helping coordinate the attack. All three men have pleaded not guilty.
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The Case Against Kewon White
The state opened its case by portraying White as the gunman in a planned attack rather than a spontaneous highway confrontation. Dallas County prosecutor Tommy Adams told jurors there was “a hitman on the highway” and identified White as that person. Defense attorney Myra McIntosh countered that prosecutors are asking jurors to fill gaps in their evidence rather than proving their theory beyond a reasonable doubt. KERA reported on the competing opening statements.
Moreover, several witnesses have already taken jurors back to the highway where MO3 was killed. Neurosurgeon Randall Graham testified that he saw an armed, masked man chasing another man and later attempted to give Noble CPR. Retired Dallas County medical examiner Jeffrey Barnard testified that Noble suffered 13 rifle wounds. Jurors have also heard from Jocylynn Jackson, who was dating MO3 at the time and shares children with Brown. She testified that MO3 had left her home shortly before he was killed and said the timing struck her as suspicious.
Those witnesses are helping prosecutors reconstruct the mechanics of the shooting. Noble’s mother gave the jury something different. Her testimony briefly shifted the case away from surveillance footage and forensic evidence to the person whose death sits at the center of every allegation being argued in court.
Meanwhile, White’s trial is expected to last roughly two weeks. He is being tried separately from Conway and Brown, whose cases remain pending.
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