YNW Melly’s ex-girlfriend Mariah Hamilton spoke out about his murder case on Law & Crime’s Sidebar Podcast. Hamilton revealed she had a warrant out for her arrest and accused police of threatening her with jail if she didn’t “tell them what they want to hear.”
“I’m currently wanted,” Hamilton told Law & Crime. “I’ve tried to get the warrant lifted plenty of times, but it’s just been a constant battle with my lawyer and the prosecutor. So, I’ve just been laying low trying to get the warrant lifted before I could even come in and speak my part.”
YNW Melly, whose real name is Jamell Demons, awaits a retrial for the 2018 murders of YNW Juvy and YNW Sakchaser. Prosecutors accuse the rapper of killing his friends and staging a drive-by shooting to cover up the murders.
Hamilton did not appear in YNW Melly’s original trial, which ended in a mistrial in July. Hamilton claimed she offered to speak with police and appear in court but not under the threat of jail. She hoped Judge John Murphy would lift the warrant against her.
YNW Melly’s ex-girlfriend filed a complaint against Mark Moretti, the lead detective in the murder case. Hamilton accused Moretti of harassing her.
“When the situation first happened, I was threatened,” she said. “I was 17, about to turn 18. They came to my house, telling me they were going to arrest me on accessory after the fact. My mom didn’t know what to do. I was young and I didn’t have a criminal record, I didn’t have a background. I was trying to go into the military at the time. So, I had to tell them what they wanted to hear so they could leave me alone. I thought they would leave me alone, but they didn’t.”
She continued, “[Moretti] told me that I was lying. He told me I knew more than I was telling and that he could arrest me for accessory after the fact. He wanted me to get on a tape recording and tell him what he wanted me to tell him, which I did. And after that, he said they wouldn’t bother me anymore. They were still calling and texting my mom asking for me. I refused to talk so many times. And yeah, I haven’t really talked to them since then, since 2019.”
Hamilton insisted she was not running for YNW Melly’s sake. She simply aimed to avoid jail.
“I just want people to know that I’m not running because of any money or anything like that,” she explained. “It’s because I don’t want to go to jail for something that I didn’t do or something that I’m not a part of. I just feel like they’re looking at me wrong and what they’re showing is not true.”
Jury selection for YNW Melly’s retrial begins in October. He has remained in jail since his 2019 arrest.