A Dallas detective says the evidence showed Mo3’s shooting was planned well before the gunman reached Interstate 35.
A black Camaro allegedly sat outside the Oak Cliff apartment where Mo3 spent his final night for roughly 18 hours before following him toward Interstate 35. Dallas homicide Detective Eric Barnes told jurors that surveillance footage helped investigators conclude the rapper’s November 2020 shooting was not an impulsive confrontation on the highway, but a killing that had been planned well in advance.
“It was pretty evident that this was not just a random road rage or robbery attempt,” Barnes testified during Kewon White’s murder trial, according to AllHipHop. He said the evidence convinced investigators that whoever was following Mo3 had waited for him to leave the apartment and intended to kill him. Surveillance later captured a gunman chasing the rapper down I-35 with an assault-style rifle after Mo3 abandoned his vehicle in traffic.
What Investigators Believe Led Up To Mo3’s Murder
Barnes said investigators learned that Mo3, whose legal name was Melvin Noble, had returned to Dallas from California on Nov. 10 and spent the night with Jocelyn Jackson at an apartment complex in Oak Cliff. The Camaro allegedly arrived there and remained until Mo3 left the following day. Additional surveillance introduced during the trial has become central to prosecutors’ effort to identify White as the man who tracked him from the complex. NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reports that jurors have heard from apartment residents and law enforcement while reviewing video evidence tied to the hours before the shooting.
The detective also described how quickly investigators considered the possibility of retaliation. Barnes already knew Mo3 as both a prominent Dallas rapper and someone whose name had surfaced in investigations involving violence between local artists. He testified that Mo3 had ongoing problems with Yella Beezy and Trapboy Freddy. After arriving at the hospital, Barnes instructed staff not to immediately announce Mo3’s death because he feared additional violence could follow. Investigators later determined that Beezy was in California when the shooting occurred and that Freddy was caught in traffic behind the crime scene, shifting the focus toward the people prosecutors now accuse of carrying out the alleged murder-for-hire plot.
White is the first defendant to face a jury in Mo3’s killing. Prosecutors accuse him of being the gunman who followed the rapper from the apartment before chasing him onto the interstate and opening fire. Devin Brown is separately accused of helping coordinate the attack, while Yella Beezy has been charged with capital murder over allegations that he financed it. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Additionally, White is already serving a federal prison sentence unrelated to Mo3’s death. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said he received 105 months in 2022 after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. His current trial will determine whether prosecutors can convince a Dallas jury that the 18-hour wait outside that apartment ended with White carrying out the killing they say had been planned before Mo3 ever pulled onto the highway.
