The fatal shots came from inside the car.

They killed Anthony Williams, who was sitting in the front passenger seat. They killed Christopher Thomas, who was seated directly behind him.

And according to prosecutors, they obliterated the story concocted by the shooter, Jamell Demons, the rapper known professionally as YNW Melly, who could face execution if convicted of first-degree murder.

Demons, 24, is accused of killing his two friends and fellow rappers in Miramar on Oct. 16, 2018, and trying to make it look like a drive-by shooting. The murders took place shortly after Melly released his breakthrough single “Murder on My Mind.”

His lawyer, Jason Roger Williams, called Demons a “rising star” targeted for false accusations by a Miramar police officer seeking his own notoriety through the case.

But in opening statements in Demons’ murder trial Monday, Assistant State Attorney Kristine Bradley laid out a case that relies on forensic evidence, non-credible alibis and technological evidence that showed that Demons and his co-defendant, who will be tried separately, were not where they originally claimed to be.

Bradley told jurors that co-defendant Cortlen Henry pulled up to Memorial Miramar Hospital with Williams slain in his front passenger seat and Thomas in the back. “They are dead. They are riddled with bullets. And the car is full of blood,” said Bradley.

Henry told investigators that the dead men were the apparent targets of a drive-by, and that he only escaped injury himself by ducking, Bradley said. He said he rushed to the hospital, but it was too late to save his friends.

But the story didn’t add up, Bradley said. It would have taken a few minutes to get from the shooting scene to the hospital, but it took Henry much longer. The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office reviewed the evidence and determined that the shots that killed the two men came from inside the car. Cellphone and surveillance evidence placed Demons inside the car.

There’s video footage of the car being at Pembroke Road near U.S. 27, which was not part of Henry’s story, Bradley said.

Prosecutors intend to prove that Demons shot the victims before he and Henry staged the evidence to look like someone had shot into the car. “When the drive-by was staged,” she said, “the victims were already dead.”

According to Bradley, it was gang-related. Demons is allegedly a member of the “G Shine Bloods Set,” part of the notorious Bloods gang.

Williams dismissed that theory and accused investigators of targeting Demons once they found out he was almost famous. “If you’re involved in prosecuting a star, you become a star,” he said. “But there’s a difference between a case that is investigated and one that is fabricated.”

Demons had no reason to kill his friends, Williams said, calling the case “riddled with reasonable doubt.”

The trial is being held in front of Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at or 954-356-4457.