Dallas rapper Yella Beezy was convicted Wednesday of hiring the gunman who killed fellow rapper MO3 on a busy interstate in 2020 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole, according to Associated Press reporting published by CBC.

A Dallas County jury unanimously found Beezy, whose real name is Markies Conway, guilty of capital murder. Prosecutors said Conway, 35, paid Kewon White US$40,000 to carry out the shooting following a yearslong, escalating feud between the two Dallas musicians.

White was separately convicted of capital murder in September and also sentenced to life without parole.

MO3, whose real name was Melvin Noble, was driving on Interstate 35 in south Dallas around noon on Nov. 11, 2020, when White pulled alongside him, authorities said. White then stepped out of his vehicle holding a gun.

Noble left his own vehicle and ran along the freeway as White pursued and fired at him, authorities said. Lead prosecutor Tommy Adams said White wore a mask and fired more than 40 rounds from an AK-47-style pistol.

Noble, 28, died at a hospital. A bystander who was inside a car was also shot but survived, police said.

During closing arguments, prosecutors played a clip from an interview in which Conway spoke about revenge, saying he would “get his lick back.” Prosecutor Krystal Biggins compared Noble’s killing with an October 2018 shooting in which Conway was struck three times while driving on a tollway in Lewisville, a Dallas suburb.

The defence disputed the strength of the prosecution’s evidence. “This is capital murder, and the state has brought you a lot of speculation,” defence lawyer John Gussio told jurors.

After the verdict, Adams called the prosecution one of his most challenging cases over the past six years. “We appreciate the verdict,” he told reporters. “We think they got it right today.”

Conway is known for his 2017 single “That’s On Me” and “Bacc At It Again,” released in 2019 with Quavo and Gucci Mane. Noble was known for a 2019 remix of “Errybody” with Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz.

Sources